Environmental journalists speak

Environmental journalism is a growing field. While environmental journalism has been around for decades, it seems to be more popular just recently, as the populace of the United States realizes that global warming may indeed be a problem worth some of their time.

When journalists from the Pacific Coast and the Southwest U.S. gathered this weekend for the Society of Professional Journalists 2008 Region 11 Spring Conference in Tucson, Ariz., they got together for panels to learn from each other about different aspects of journalism. One of these aspects was about – you guessed it! – environmental journalism.

Why is this important to you? It’s important because you value the information you get in stories about the environment. It’s how you find out what’s going on. Without these people and others like them, little information would get to you and other concerned members of the public.

Below are excerpts from each of the three panelists, speaking about environmental journalism.

These three pieces are a little long, but to those who read about the environment, this is kind of a behind-the-scenes view of how these stories get done and the challenges the journalists who write them often face.

To those who write – or want to write – about the environment, this is a unique opportunity to listen to some of the experts in the field of reporting on what is happening to our planet.

Photos by Jennifer Tramm, but please forgive the low quality. These were taken on my cell phone, as I neglected to bring a better camera with me that day.

First up: Tony Davis, environmental reporter. Here and here are two of his stories, published in the Arizona Daily Star.







Next up: Dick Kamp, Wick Communications environmental liaison, and also former director of the Border Ecology Project.

Here is one of his stories, published in the Vail Sun, Vail, Ariz. Here is another, published in the Daily Dispatch, Douglas, Ariz.

Lastly, Alan Weisman, author of the popular book, “The World Without Us,” which was Time magazine’s no. 1 nonfiction book of 2007, and associate journalism professor at the University of Arizona.