Randy Lee Loftis, environmental writer for The Dallas Morning News, covers background, environmental battles, offshore orientation, onshore infrastructure and natural gas exports in the Gulf. Photo: ConocoPhillips's Magnolia tension-leg platform, about 180 miles south of Cameron, La. Credit: NOAA.
Here are some starting points for covering the science of how we're changing the Gulf, our semi-enclosed sea, from Randy Lee Loftis, environmental writer for The Dallas Morning News: orientation, geography and population; commerce; oil, gas and chemicals; marine life and fisheries; and the dead zone. Photo: Creolefish at Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Credit: IFE/URIIAO.
From 1970 until 2010, 34.8 million more people decided to move towards the coast of the United States and that population is expected to grow just as sea-level rise and climate change continue to increase the risk of living there. Amy Wold, a reporter with The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, covers change and adaptation; locks and floodgates; levees and marshes; communities at risk; insurance issues; and lessons learned. Photo (click to enlarge): In 2012, Wold took this shot of the rapidly disappearing Cat Island in Barataria Basin in south Louisiana. She returned there in 2014 to find barely any land left above water. © Amy Wold, The (Baton Rouge) Advocate.
Amy Wold, a reporter with The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, writes about coastal challenges facing the state, including coastal loss, restoration, economics, diversion, the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP settlements and the RESTORE Act, fisheries impacts — and why protecting and stabilizing Louisiana’s coastline is not just a local issue, but a national one. Image: Heavy machinery moves around sediment that has been piped in from the Mississippi River at a coastal restoration project in Plaquemines Parish in November 2013. © Amy Wold, The (Baton Rouge) Advocate.
Stormwater becomes a big media story during disasters such as floods and hurricane surges, and it's essential to cover the basics then. But there are dozens of related issues that can contribute to the disaster, and covering them in advance can help your audience understand ways of possibly preventing the peak crises.
The atlas — a database actually — is based partly on climate-related changes in tree cover. It maps out current distribution of 147 species and modeled distribution resulting from climate change.
The organization Maplight now offers three additional ways of looking at its data. Over 14 million records cover ties between lobbying money, legislators, and either all legislation or that relating to several environmental topics. This information can help you better cover Congressional election races of interest to your audience.
This user-friendly tool will help you understand and analyze discharges from point sources such as factories, sewage treatment plants, power plants, airports, and feedlots. EPA consolidated data from a number of inventories, making it easier to see who is dumping what, when, and where, and who is known to be in violation of their permit.
The confidential National Air Quality Site Assessment Tool helps the livestock owner/operator figure out how changing on-site practices can reduce emissions of ammonia, methane, volatile organic compounds, hydrogen sulfide, fine particulates, and odors. This may be useful for journalists; whether an owner/operator will discuss the details of their operation or not, there's a story.
Advertisement 
