UF Environmental Journalism

WUFT and Report for America announce new hire for agriculture, water and climate change beat Rose Schnabel will join the UF College of Journalism and Communications’ Innovation News Center in July as part of WUFT’s new Florida Environment & Ag Desk.

Gainesville friends! As you plan next week, I hope you will save Wednesday, April 17th, at 7 p.m. and join me as I host Barbara Drake-vera's book launch party for MELTED AWAY: A Memoir of Climate Change and Caregiving in Peru at the Matheson History Museum downtown. I am a such a fan of this beautiful book that grapples with care for family and care of the Earth. Join us for a book discussion, sale and signing, and of course--treats! Free but please register: https://mathesonmuseum.networkforgood.com/events/67412-book-launch-for-melted-away

Students, sign up for the FIO newsletter to hear about opportunities including open bearths on research vessels!

Whether you are looking for a new job, internship, volunteer, or cruise ride-along opportunity, FIO's new Student Opportunities newsletter will have it all. Join our newsletter to be one of the first to learn about student opportunities from FIO, our members and our partners. Visit the link in our bio to sign up!

Gainesville! Please join me and Jack E. Davis Tuesday night (1/30 @ 6 p.m.) at Pugh Hall on the UF campus as we host Rebecca Renner to talk about her fantastic new book GATOR COUNTRY. It's a masterwork of immersive reporting, beautifully written and captures the complexity of both Florida and wildlife poaching in a way that few others have done. "Remarkable," wrote the New York Times in its review, "Every species, and every person who fights for its continued existence, deserves a book like this."

A critical story by student Augustus Hoff WUFT News on what it's like to play volleyball in public school gyms in Alachua County in record heat with no air conditioning. Some great photos here of the human fans who have to bring their own electric fans. . https://www.wuft.org/news/2023/09/25/not-cool-for-school-alachua-county-students-struggle-inside-gyms-without-a-c-with-no-plans-of-installation/?fbclid=IwAR0cZKFvwxe5eGmbvEzqILHcJRsoVG4P0MUf6i5bnM45bueg3HMwAUoqzNs

Not cool for school - Alachua County students struggle inside gyms without A/C, with no plans of installation - WUFT News Filing into the school gymnasium is an all too familiar feeling: The squeak of glossy pine floorboards, the reek of sweat, rubber balls and cheap body sprays. But for some Alachua County students, there’s an added woe: The heat. “It’s very hot. Too hot,” said Layla Robinson, a seventh grader...

In our latest project, a team of journalists from the UF College of Journalism and Communications and Missouri School of Journalism report the story of fertilizer from Florida's Bone Valley to Louisiana's Cancer Alley. All thanks to the Pulitzer Center. Please share this great work from the new generation of environmental reporters.

The Price of Plenty Few inventions have changed the world like synthetic fertilizer. But fertilizer manufacturing and use also threaten human and environmental health. The Price of Plenty teamed up student journalists from the University of Florida and the University of Missouri to report on fertilizer from the ground....

students and grads, check out this position for an environmental reporter @ FGCU in southwest Florida, a great beat there: https://fgcu.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/eaglejobs/job/Main-Campus/Digital-Environmental-Reporter_R0002025

Congratulations students for earning an honorable mention in this year's Society of Environmental Journalists awards, the world's largest, most comprehensive contest for reporting on the environment. Judges comments on THE HUMAN HAZARD, on the impact of climate change on public health in Florida: "The students used original data reporting to show how climate change is exacerbating the threat of heat-related illnesses in Florida. The series highlighted the state government's lapses, including a lack of a climate assessment and inadequate 'resilience planning,' and show how they have an outsized affect on children, elderly people and low-income communities."

Winners: SEJ 20th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment And the winners are...

Some of students' favorite speakers are part of this terrific (and free!) Zoom seminar next week on covering climate change: https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ynibkhbkT2SwAgHCBrGqsA

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Covering Climate and the Environment. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Few science stories will command as much reader and viewer attention as global warming and the environment. Learn how to help readers understand the ways in which humanity plays a role not only in the problem, but also in the solution, and how your journalism can make a difference.

Environmental Journalism, JOU 4314, is back in person for fall 2021, including our fantastic overnight field trip to the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge. (Scheduled Sun Oct. 24 through the Mon morning of class Oct. 25th.) If you know students who like to get their boots muddy, please share the love for : https://www.jou.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/EnvironmentalJournalismFlyerFall2021.pdf

A great opportunity to learn about environmental racism; the workshop is free but limited to the first 25 reporters who sign up and submit portfolios:

Enviro Racism 2020 — Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources Sunnyside, one of the oldest Black communities in Houston, is a neighborhood with a strong social fabric and pride in its history. But, thanks to the systemic racism that has shaped U.S. cities nationwide, Sunnyside has also lived the American experience of so many marginalized Black and Brown commu...

Keeping up with the Trump Administration's environmental rollbacks requires a rolling graphic ...

The Trump Administration Is Reversing Nearly 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List. A New York Times analysis found more than 60 environmental policies officially rolled back under Mr. Trump and another 34 rollbacks still in progress.

Florida’s climate preparedness has focused largely on the built and natural environment. A semester-long investigation of climate change and public health found that human hazards — from heat-related hospitalizations to disease-carrying insects — are on the rise in the state. Children, elders, low-income Floridians and other vulnerable populations are particularly susceptible to these risks, now amplified by coronavirus as basic programs are suspended to contend with the emergency. But potentially record heat, stronger hurricanes and other human health threats didn’t get the message to quarantine.

The four-part series by students in the spring 2020 class launched today with a look at extreme heat, and continues each Monday in May.

Heat Policies in Florida May Overlook Most Vulnerable For Floridians without A/C, extreme heat is an emergency even when the power is on. But for vulnerable populations who have broken units or can’t pay the bills, no A/C can be fatal.

Much recognition of environmental reporting in the Pulitzer announcement today (H/T SEJ):

Explanatory winner: Washington Post’s 2°: BEYOND THE LIMIT.

Finalist: LA Times, The Ocean Game: The sea is rising. Can you save your town?

Feature Story, Finalist: Boston Globe, At the Edge of a Warming World.

Public Service, finalist: New York Times, for coverage of Trump administration attack on science.

Editorial Writing, finalist, Jill Burcum, Minneapolis Star Tribuine for writing about a proposed mine and pollution in the waters of a wilderness area.

Extreme climate change in the United States: Here are America’s fastest-warming places More than a century of temperature data shows much of the U.S. Northeast is in the grip of extreme warming, with winter heating up more quickly than other seasons.

On this, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, is it time to consider rights for nature, in the same way corporations have earned some legal rights? WUFT News story by Alli Sabo and Storymap by Joshua Baker, students in this spring's class. More great stories coming soon from this dogged spring 2020 class.

Rights Of Nature On the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day, is it time to consider rights for nature?                           ___________________________________________________________Most of the time, the Floridan Aquifer feeds the nearly 200 spring

A much-needed reminder of 's spring 2020 overnight on Seahorse Key.

#EJUF weekend on Seahorse Key, B.C. 49 new photos · Album by Cynthia Barnett

E.P.A., Citing Coronavirus, Drastically Relaxes Rules for Polluters The agency said it would not penalize companies that violate rules on monitoring and reporting pollution discharges.

For January, Global Media Relations intern @ TNC ...

Global Media Relations Intern at Nature Conservancy in Arlington, VA, USA | NationalNonprofits.org - Nonprofit Job Board The Global Communications team operates at the heart of The Nature Conservancy’s mission—supporting and leveraging global conservation work by providing focused communications strategies, and engaging content that targets select audiences with the power to change the future for people and nature...

Nice interview with diver Jill Heinerth in the New York Times:

Sharing the View From Way, Way Down Under Jill Heinerth talks about her new memoir, “Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver.”

Today is the deadline to register for this great (& free) conference to help us get better at telling the story of climate change.

Climate Change Summit 2019 A lively, hands-on workshop where participants will learn the principles of communicating climate research clearly and compellingly. The session will include activities that allow you to practice using the concepts right away, hosted by UF’s Center for Public Interest Communications. The workshop ...

Yale Environment 360 and the Oak Spring Garden Foundation are accepting entries for our first Young Writers Awards. The awards will honor the best nonfiction environmental writing by authors under the age of 35.

Articles should focus on topics related to the natural world, with an emphasis on subjects related to land conservation, forests and plants, or natural places. The writing can be either an essay or a reported piece, but should have a personal voice and point of view. Entries can be of any length up to a maximum of 2,500 words. Articles that have appeared in another publication are not eligible. This contest is open to writers internationally, but submissions must be written in English.

The first-place winner will receive $2,000, and the second and third place winners $500 each. Winning entries will be edited by Yale Environment 360 editors and posted on the E360 site. The awards judges will be E360 Editor Roger Cohn, Oak Spring Garden President Peter Crane, and E360 Managing Editor Katherine Bagley.

The deadline for entries is November 15, 2019, with winners being notified by December 15.

Submissions must have a cover page that includes the writer’s name, birth date, a brief bio of no more than one paragraph, and contact information (email, phone number, and address). Please send any questions to [email protected], with the subject line “Young Writers Awards.”

Entries Invited for the First Annual E360 Young Writers Awards E360 Digest September 18, 2019 Entries Invited for the First Annual E360 Young Writers Awards Yale Environment 360 and the Oak Spring Garden Foundation are accepting entries for our first Young Writers Awards. The awards will honor the best nonfiction environmental writing by authors under the age o...

Environmental Journalism is now a permanent course at the University of Florida, with its own, auspicious number: JOU 4314! The spring 2020 class will meet Tuesdays from 3 to 6 p.m. We'll be tackling a project at the intersection of climate change and public health. Grad students welcome. Email [email protected] for more info.

Congratulations to Carlton Ward Jr., one of the wonderful conservation photographers we talk about in Environmental Journalism class. Thanks for all you do for the panthers, for Florida, and for a better world human and natural.

Images offer glimpse into life of endangered Florida panther Carlton Ward’s photographs chart survival struggle of one of America’s last remaining big cats

Congratulations to the entire class of 2018 for winning a Society of Environmental Journalists award for the class project Peak Florida. (See the whole team here! projects.wuft.org/peakflorida/about/) A few of our intrepid reporters braved the snow in Colorado this week for SEJ, the largest and best environmental reporting conference in the world. For UF College of Journalism and Communications students interested in telling the story of the planet, is now a permanent course. JOU 4314 is scheduled for spring 2020 on Tuesdays from 3 to 6 p.m. Come get your boots muddy!

Congratulations to members of the fall class for winning the in-depth online category for their excellent project examining the confluence of Florida population growth, lax growth management & climate change, !

Region 3 Mark of Excellence Awards winners announced in Savannah, Georgia Region 3 Mark of Excellence Awards winners announced in Savannah, Georgia

The Society of Environmental Journalists new Ray Reece award for students includes some cash--use it for your next big story--and travel to the fall conference!

SEJ Announces the Ray Reece “Excellence in Environmental Journalism” Student Award SEJ is pleased to announce the launch of the Ray Reece "Excellence in Environmental Journalism” Student Award for environmental reporting by undergraduate, graduate and high-school students. Win cash prizes and an expenses-paid trip to SEJ's 29​th​ Annual Conference in Fort Collins, Colorado.