04 August 2018
Weekend Reader: Award Winners, Southern Delusions & Top News.
SEJ recognizes the year's best in environmental journalism; a few observations from our Weekend Editor on the Solid (and Trumpian) South; and more
The Society of Environmental Journalists annual awards shows the strength and depth of environmental journalism; talk of a Democratic overthrow in the midterm elections is hard to find in the American South.
<p>ATLANTA—In the off-year 2017 elections, Doug Jones was just the Dreamland candidate for Southern Democrats' comeback.</p><p>Relatively telegenic and a civil rights prosecutor, Jones faced the best odds an Alabama Democrat had in years: His Republican opponent, Roy Moore, had twice been bounced from the Alabama Supreme Court for ignoring Constitutional mandates. And Moore was buried in a dozen complaints that he trolled, stalked, or groped young women decades earlier.</p><p>Although Moore denied all accusations, his campaign wallowed in an epic pit of creepiness.</p><p>The relatively unassailable Jones managed a 1.7 percent victory for a partial-term Senate seat he'll be hard-pressed to keep in 2020.</p><p>One-point-seven percent, over a guy dragging credible child molestation charges to the polls.</p><p>Read the <a href="https://www.ehn.org/commentary-southern-discomfort-2592413635.html" target="_blank">full story here</a>.</p><h3>The best environmental journalism</h3><p>For almost two decades, the Society of Environmental Journalists has been recognizing the best environmental journalism published in the United States. <a href="https://www.sej.org/1st-place-winners-sej-17th-annual-awards-reporting-environment" target="_blank">They announced winners this week</a> for this year's journalism awards. Some of the strong contenders showed both the vibrancy and urgency of environmental reporting.</p><p>Among the winners: </p><p><strong>"Bombs in Our Backyard"</strong> by Abrahm Lustgarten, Lena Groeger, Ryann Grochowski Jones, Sisi Wei, Ashley Gilbertson, Ranjani Chakraborty and Lucas Waldron for ProPublica.</p><p><strong>"Toxic Secrets: Pollution, Evasion and Fear in North Jersey"</strong> by James M. O'Neill, Scott Fallon, Chris Pedota, Daniel Sforza, Michael Pettigano and Susan Lupow for <em>The Record</em> (Bergen County, NJ) and NorthJersey.com.</p><p><strong>"Marshall Islands Project"</strong> by Kim Wall, Coleen Jose, Jan Hendrik Hinzel, Brittany Levine, Andrew Freedman and Alex Hazlett for Mashable.</p><p>Links and the <a href="https://www.sej.org/1st-place-winners-sej-17th-annual-awards-reporting-environment" target="_blank">full list of winners and runners-up are here</a>.</p><h3>Top weekend news & opinions</h3><p><strong>Payback? </strong>A <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/bribery-trial-reveals-jeff-sessions-role-in-blocking-epa-action-targeting-one-of-his-biggest-donors/" target="_blank">major past donor</a> to Jeff Sessions's campaigns gets some alleged payback in a dispute with EPA.</p><p><strong>From theory to in-your-face: </strong>Climate scientist Michael Mann says <a href="http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/08/02/summer-weather-climate-change" target="_blank">climate impacts are no longer subtle, they're in our faces</a>. From WBUR's <em>Here & Now.</em></p><p><strong>Two from Alaska on oil </strong><strong>damage:</strong> From Inside Climate News<em>: </em><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01082018/alaska-north-slope-oil-drilling-health-fears-pollution-risk-native-village-nuiqsut." target="_blank">Surrounded by oil fields,an Alaskan village fears for its health.</a></p><p>And from the NYT's Henry Fountain: How new oil projects <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-02/green-energy-capacity-passes-a-trillion-watts?platform=hootsuite" target="_blank">cut scars across Alaskan wilderness. </a></p><p><strong> <strong>Shocker!</strong></strong> Green energy passes its first <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-02/green-energy-capacity-passes-a-trillion-watts?platform=hootsuite" target="_blank">trillion-watt milestone </a>as prices drop. (<em>Bloomberg)</em></p><p><strong>Stellar </strong>long-read from <em>The Guardian </em>and Keith Kahn-Harris on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/03/denialism-what-drives-people-to-reject-the-truth" target="_blank">Denialism: What drives people to reject the truth.</a></p><p>From <em>Wash Post's Capital Weather Gang:</em> California's <a href="https://www.ehn.org/californias-carr-fire-may-have-unleashed-the-most-intense-fire-tornado-ever-observed-in-the-u-s-the-washington-post-2592789345.html" target="_blank">Carr Fire </a>became one one the biggest fire tornadoes ever measured.</p><p>Essay from NPR's Scott Simon: Calling the press the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/08/04/635461307/opinion-calling-the-press-the-enemy-of-the-people-is-a-menacing-move" target="_blank">"enemy of the people" </a>is a menacing move.</p><p><strong></strong><strong>Climate Denial's evil twin: </strong>Climate denial isn't the only anti-science push that won't die: In this NYT op-ed, Melinda Winner Moyer says <a href="https://t.co/g5WupQr3ir" target="_blank">anti-vaxxers</a> still have an impact on vaccine science.</p><p><em>Grist</em> offers <a href="https://grist.org/article/what-the-new-york-times-got-right-and-wrong-about-the-super-wicked-problem-of-climate-change/" target="_blank"><em>a</em> level-headed assessment</a> of the <em>NYT Sunday Magazine's </em>controversial <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html" target="_blank">"autopsy"</a> on how the climate movement blew it in the 1980's.</p>
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