As a veteran of reporting on the marine environment, David Helvarg is encouraged by recent improvements in the quality of ocean journalism, but sees a pressing need for more hands on deck. Offering inspiration from his own career, he notes that the world’s rapidly changing oceans hold an abundance of stories and urges others to dive in and explore them.
"Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it was closing its largest research campus and radically reorganizing research at the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The moves were controversial because they involved long-distance job transfers that threatened to uproot many scientists and derail research programs. This week, a federal judge declared the plans were likely illegal and ordered a halt until at least 11 December, when the current federal budget runs out."
"The Environmental Protection Agency has quietly backtracked on a claim that the US has phased out two of the most dangerous Pfas compounds – Pfoa and Pfos."
"Backed by the federal government and bipartisan leadership, Pennsylvania’s hydrogen projects were supposed to create jobs and slash emissions. Now, they’re in limbo."
"In the arid American West, expanded mining intensifies battles in vulnerable communities over one of the region’s scarcest resources."
"The nation’s energy regulators have shot down a bid from a regional grid operator to cut power to some large data centers during a supply shortfall — leaving the issue largely in the hands of states."
"After halting construction on offshore wind farms and canceling leases for future projects, the Trump administration just took another step to erode America’s troubled offshore wind industry." "The administration is seeking to reevaluate a key permit for Revolution Wind, a $6.2B project that is already generating power for the energy-hungry Northeast."
"Behind a trawl fishing boat, a vast net can spend hours scraping the seafloor, funneling schools of fish toward a narrow bag at the back. A single tow can bring tens of thousands of pounds of seafood aboard."
"Editors are facing an influx of AI-written pitches, including at science publications like mine. What now?"
"Three days after Michael Jensen left his job as the top Trump White House official for Latin America policy in late May, he boarded a private jet with an American crypto tycoon scouting oil deals in Venezuela, where a U.S. military raid last January had removed President Nicolás Maduro and installed a compliant government."
