Environment
and Energy
Please let the Institute
know about links that do not work, or about sources we should
add. If a resource here helped you in covering a story, please
let us know by emailing al.cross@uky.edu.
JOURNALISM
Environment Writer,
http://www.environmentwriter.org
This source focuses "on journalism on environmental and
natural resources issues."
Society of Environmental
Journalists, http://www.sej.org/
"The source for journalists reporting on the environment."
GOVERNMENT
AGENCIES
Energy Information
Administration, www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/quarterly/qcr_sum.html
You can get data on U.S. coal production, exports, imports,
receipts, prices, consumption and quality from the Quarterly
Coal Report. It has
energy tables and maps for every state, which could make good
graphics for illustrating stories on various energy issues.
Each map is accompanied
by a set of "quick facts," which can tell more than
the map. Each state map is accompanied
by tables that compare the state's energy resources, prices,
production, consumption, taxes and certain energy-related environmental
programs with the rest of the nation. For example, in 2005 the
average price for 1,000 cubic feet of of natural gas at a wellhead
in Kentucky was $6.84, well under the national average of $7.33.
Environmental
Protection Agency, http://www.epa.gov
"The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is
to protect human health and the environment. Since 1970, EPA
has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the
American people. "
Office of Surface
Mining Reclamation and Enforcement,
http://www.osmre.gov
"Our mission is to carry out the requirements of the Surface
Mining Control and Reclamation Act in cooperation with States
and Tribes. Our primary objectives are to ensure that coal mines
are operated in a manner that protects citizens and the environment
during mining and assures that the land is restored to beneficial
use following mining, and to mitigate the effects of past mining
by aggressively pursuing reclamation of abandoned coal mines."
National Agroforestry
Center, http://www.unl.edu/nac/
"NAC conducts research on how to design and install forested
buffers to protect water quality and develops and delivers technology
on a broad suite of agroforestry practices to natural resource
professionals who directly assist landowners and communities."
Atlantic States
Marine Fisheries Commission, http://www.asmfc.org/
"The Commission serves as a deliberative body, coordinating
the conservation and management of the states shared near shore
fishery resources – marine, shell, and anadromous –
for sustainable use."
ENVIRONMENTAL
GROUPS
Appalachian Center
for the Economy and the Environment, http://www.appalachian-center.org
-
A regional law and policy group that says it “seeks
fundamental changes in compliance, implementation and enforcement
of major environmental laws in Central Appalachia,” including
an end to mountaintop-removal coal mining.
Earth Justice,
http://www.earthjustice.org/
"Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm
dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources,
and wildlife of this earth and to defending the right of all
people to a healthy environment. "
Environmental
Working Group, http://www.ewg.org/
"Our team of scientists, engineers, policy experts, lawyers
and computer programmers pores over government data, legal documents,
scientific studies and our own laboratory tests to expose threats
to your health and the environment, and to find solutions."
This site also has database on agricultural subsidy programs.
Environmental
Defense Fund, http://www.environmentaldefense.org/home.cfm
"Environmental Defense is dedicated to protecting the environmental
rights of all people, including future generations...We are
guided by scientific evaluation of environmental problems, and
the solutions we advocate will be based on science, even when
it leads in unfamiliar directions. We work to create solutions
that win lasting economic and social support because they are
nonpartisan, cost-effective and fair."
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, http://www.peer.org
"As a service organization assisting federal & state
public employees, PEER allows public servants to work as 'anonymous
activists' so that agencies must confront the message, rather
than the messenger"
National Environmental
Trust, http://www.net.org/
"The National Environmental Trust is a non-profit, non-partisan
organization established in 1994 to inform citizens about environmental
problems and how they affect our health and quality of life...NET's
public education campaigns use modern communication techniques
and the latest scientific studies to translate complex environmental
issues for citizens."
Natural Resources
Defense Council, http://www.nrdc.org
"The Natural Resources Defense Council's purpose is to
safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and
the natural systems on which all life depends. We work to restore
the integrity of the elements that sustain life -- air, land
and water -- and to defend endangered natural places. We seek
to establish sustainability and good stewardship of the Earth
as central ethical imperatives of human society."
Southern Environmental Law Center,
http://www.southernenvironment.org
"For the past 20 years, the Southern Environmental Law
Center has used the full power of the law to conserve clean
water, healthy air, wild lands, and livable communities throughout
the Southeast. As the biggest, most powerful environmental organization
headquartered in the South, SELC is able to work simultaneously
in all three branches of government, and in all of our six focus
states, to comprehensively address the most urgent problems
facing our region."
RESEARCH TOOLS
The Environment
Directory, http://www.webdirectory.com
An environment search engine, to find people and information
on a wide range of topics.
Environmental
Media Services, http://www.ems.org
EMS is a nonprofit communications clearinghouse "dedicated
to expanding media coverage of critical environmental and public
health issues."
EcoGateway News
& Information Directories, http://www.ecoiq.com/onlineresources/directories/newsinfo/index.html
Includes directories for news releases, opinion articles, news
digests, online periodicals, e-mail periodicals, online environmental
news media, and other media resources.
Environmental
Health News, http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/
News and reports on environmental links to health and related
policy issues, compiled by Environmental Health Sciences, are
searchable.
Environmental
Health Center, http://www.nsc.org/ehc.htm
Includes Chemical backgrounders; a directory of FAQs on environmental
issues, organized by topic; a comprehensive environmental glossary;
peer-reviewed guidebooks for env'l journalists.
Coal Impoundment
Location and Information System, www.coalimpoundment.com,
has general information on impoundments in West Virginia and
Kentucky, and emergency information for those in West Virginia.
Impoundments in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee will be added
to the database.
UMWA,
http://www.umwa.org/mining/colminrs.shtml
This site explains what exactly coal miners do.
Science News Online,
http://www.sciencenews.org/
Online science magazine. Includes searchable, database which
allows you to call up issues from 1996 to the present.
The
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
helps non-metropolitan media define the public agenda in their
communities, through strong reporting and commentary on local
issues and on broader issues that have local impact. Its initial
focus area is Central Appalachia, but as an arm of the University
of Kentucky it has a statewide mission, and it has national
scope. It has academic collaborators at Appalachian State University,
East Tennessee State University, Eastern Kentucky University,
Georgia College and State University, Indiana University of
Pennsylvania, Marshall University, Middle Tennessee State University,
Ohio University, Southeast Missouri State University, the University
of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville,
Washington and Lee University, West Virginia University and
the Knight Community Journalism Fellows Program at the University
of Alabama. It is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation and the University of Kentucky, with additional financial
support from the Ford Foundation. To get notices of
Rural Blog postings and other Institute news, click here.
