Even as the number of coal-fired power plants declines in the United States, the dangerous coal ash byproducts they generate are found in dumps in every state, threatening to leach toxins into drinking water supplies. The latest TipSheet examines why the problem won’t seem to go away, and offers 10 top story ideas and resources for reporting on coal ash in your locale.
Fall deer hunting season is getting underway across much of North America. And with it, the uncertain risks from chronic wasting disease. Environmental journalists would do well to report the story to help keep safe those who eat the meat of deer and elk they kill. The latest TipSheet has more on the backstory, along with 10 story ideas and reporting resources.
From a simple autumn leaf can come a legion of local environmental stories, if you sift through the pile thoughtfully. The latest TipSheet ponders the possibilities, from who in your municipality actually gathers them and how they’re used as mulch and (possibly contaminated) compost, where you don’t want them to collect and what people used to do with them that these days is a no-no.
If you’re thinking of reporting on major greenhouse gas emitters in your coverage area by using long-standing U.S. government data, better act fast — a key source of that information may soon disappear, warns the latest TipSheet. Find out who’s working to save the numbers, plus get more than a dozen story ideas and reporting resources.
Enforcement has usually been serious business at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Now it seems many pollution laws are going unpoliced. TipSheet explains how the EPA’s own resources can help investigative reporters find violations, track regulatory actions and uncover nationwide patterns of corporate mismanagement.
A cool swim on a hot day is one of the quintessential pleasures of summer. That is, unless polluted water makes it — and any other aquatic contact — a high-risk activity. It’s an important environmental and public health story for journalists to tell. TipSheet helps review waterborne illnesses to watch for, regulations supposed to protect against them and local story ideas to pursue.
Steep cuts for the U.S. National Park System look likely from the Trump administration, affecting visitors, roiling local businesses and raising political hackles. For environmental journalists, budgets slashed for hundreds of park units could also turn a summer standby story into something closer to disaster coverage. TipSheet has more than a dozen story ideas and reporting resources to cover the park nearest you.
With fishing season underway across the United States, reporters have a line to an array of great, local environmental stories, whether about the recreation and tourism industries or overfishing and the health of regional ecosystems. The latest TipSheet has more than a dozen story ideas and reporting resources to help you reel in an angle of your own.
As the Trump administration rolls back Biden-era rules limiting the presence of “forever chemicals” in drinking water, an updated data mapping tool helps pinpoint local angles on the PFAS story. The latest TipSheet outlines the basics on this class of widely used chemicals, their risks to humans and the challenges of regulating them, plus provides a half-dozen story ideas and questions to ask.
Decades of effort to tackle the often-intractable problems of environmental injustice, supported in recent years by billions in funding, are now facing the knife under the Trump administration. The latest TipSheet provides a thumbnail history of government initiatives and why it matters, then offers a dozen story ideas and reporting resources to tell the story in your community.
