As the real estate market enters its busiest time of year, it’s also a smart time for environmental journalists to explore and report on all the risks facing prospective property owners — whether lead paint or pipes, radon, flood, wildfire or more. The latest TipSheet explores the beat and offers up more than a dozen story ideas to pursue in your community.
Hundreds of hydropower dams in the United States will see their licenses expiring in the next decade, generating years-long federal relicensing processes. That prospect calls for close local and regional coverage of the complicated balance between renewable energy needs with negative environmental impacts. The latest TipSheet explains the licensing process and the dam backstory, along with a dozen story ideas and reporting resources.
The energy transition imperative to move from fossil fuels toward renewable energies could leave out individual homeowners unable to install rooftop solar. But as the latest TipSheet points out, there’s an alternative: community solar. Good local reporting is needed to demystify it though. The backstory, plus more than a dozen story ideas and reporting resources.
Wildfires in the Texas Panhandle are a good reminder that wildfire season now stretches across much of the year, so environmental journalists would do well to look for ways to localize their reporting on wildfire preparedness. The latest TipSheet offers 10 story ideas and half a dozen reporting resources to tell the story of your community’s wildfire risk.
What does dragging an old car onto an ice-covered lake have to do with informing your community about the perils of climate heating? Potentially a good deal. The latest TipSheet explains how waning winters and the potential impact on the entertaining tradition of ice fishing can serve as an entry into more serious matters. A dozen story ideas and resources to get you started.
As a follow-on to our recent story about the complex jockeying over a federal anti-terrorism program to prevent high-risk U.S. industrial facilities from becoming targets, the latest TipSheet offers localizable story ideas, along with reporting resources to help you find CFATS facilities in your community. Read more. Plus see the earlier story on why chemical plants, terrorism and regulations may be back on the agenda.
A relative of mad cow disease is working its way across the population of deer and related cervids in North America. And the latest TipSheet cautions that it remains unclear whether this chronic wasting disease can make the leap to humans, such as millions of deer and elk hunters. What environmental journalists need to know about possible risks and precautions.
Nothing may seem more personal than a home flooded by heavy rains. But the latest TipSheet points out that for local environmental reporters, there’s a bigger story to be told: how your community regulates stormwater and storm sewers, especially in the face of climate change-driven extreme precipitation. More than a dozen reporting ideas and resources.
Health and environmental concerns about some beauty items — like the use of formaldehyde in certain hair straighteners — have started to emerge as a focus for federal regulation. But as the latest TipSheet points out, the response has been slow and fitful. Meanwhile, here are story ideas and resources to help reporters find local angles for this environmental and public health hazard.
The connection between global warming and human health is worrying many public health experts, as some climate change-induced ecological shifts have worsened the potential spread of infectious diseases, including in North America. The latest TipSheet takes a closer look at a half-dozen climate-related diseases that environmental journalists might watch for local and regional stories. Plus, resources to report on the issue.
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