Category: Environment

The Smoke Comes Every Year. Sugar Companies Say the Air Is Safe.

Lulu Ramadan, Ash Ngu, Maya Miller
PUBLISHED BY: ProPublica, The Palm Beach Post ON July 8, 2021
AAAS Kavli Award KSJ Victor K. McElheny Award

This feature is the central story of Black Snow, a series by ProPublica and The Palm Beach Post investigating the health impacts – and government failures – of burning sugar cane among poor communities in Florida. Lulu Ramadan (formerly at […]

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Storygram: Ed Yong’s “North Atlantic Right Whales Are Dying in Horrific Ways”

Ed Yong • October 8, 2019
PUBLISHED BY: The Atlantic ON June 27, 2019
Showcase Selection

Six individuals—more than 1 percent of the population—were found dead just this month, the latest entries in a troubling pattern.

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The Loneliest Polar Bear | Chapter 1

Kale Williams
PUBLISHED BY: The Oregonian ON October 16, 2017
AAAS Kavli Award

In the den, the walls were white like ice. Light came from a single red bulb. The air smelled of cool concrete, of straw piled thick, and of a heavy, captive musk. Somewhere, tucked under her 600-pound mother, was Nora. …

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Where Forests Work Harder

Courtney Humphries
PUBLISHED BY: CITYLAB ON December 19, 2016
American Geophysical Union

A new study shows that trees in the Boston region grow faster and store more carbon as biomass the closer they are to developed areas.

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Storygram: Joshua Sokol’s “Something in the water: life after mercury poisoning”

Joshua Sokol • December 4, 2018
PUBLISHED BY: Mosaic ON September 25, 2017
CASW Clark/Payne

Walking by the side of her house, Rimiko Yoshinaga points at the broad, vine-encrusted tree her grandfather used to climb. During one of the most famous environmental disasters in history, this tree stood over the calm, clear waters of the Shiranui Sea. He would perch up there and call down to say whether the fish were coming, Rimiko says. …

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Inside the Firestorm

Douglas Fox
PUBLISHED BY: High Country News ON April 3, 2017
AAAS Kavli Award

Douglas Fox’s story, on new technology that allows scientists to see the forces behind the flames, won the AAAS Kavli award in 2017. Fox is a freelance journalist who writes extensively on earth, Antarctic, and polar sciences. Aircraft N2UW has flown […]

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Lowcountry on the Edge

Tony Bartelme
PUBLISHED BY: The Post and Courier ON December 19, 2016
American Geophysical Union

Living on the edge has always been risky. Now our blurry edges are beginning to vanish.

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Storygram: Jane Qiu’s “Trouble in Tibet”

Jane Qiu • November 7, 2017
PUBLISHED BY: Nature ON January 13, 2016
AAAS Kavli Award

In the northern reaches of the Tibetan Plateau, dozens of yaks graze on grasslands that look like a threadbare carpet. The pasture has been munched down to bare soil in places, and deep cracks run across the snow-dusted landscape. The animals’ owner, a herder named Dodra, emerges from his home wearing a black robe, a cowboy hat and a gentle smile tinged with worry. …

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Attack of the Mutant Pupfish

Hillary Rosner
PUBLISHED BY: WIRED ON November 19, 2012
AAAS Kavli Award

WEST OF PAHRUMP, Nevada, in a corner of the Mojave Desert a couple thousand feet above Death Valley, a warm aquifer provides a home for one of the world’s rarest animals. …

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Leaving the Sea: Staten Islanders Experiment with Managed Retreat

Elizabeth Rush
PUBLISHED BY: Urban Omnibus ON February 11, 2015
NASW Science in Society Award

In Oakwood Beach, Staten Island, an often-overlooked cranny of the city’s “forgotten borough,” the unthinkable is happening — seaside homes of longtime New Yorkers, sold to the State, are being razed to return the neighborhood to wetlands. …

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