Society of Environmental Journalists: News and views from SEJ's 17th annual conference in Stanford, CA

News and views from SEJ's 17th annual conference in Stanford, CA

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SEJ's 17th annual conference, hosted by Stanford University, took place September 5-9, 2007. Our heartfelt thanks goes out to our volunteer recording team for taking their time before, during and after the conference to provide this coverage for all to enjoy and benefit from.

Click on session titles in the body of the page below for a description and speaker list for that session. You'll find the conference agenda, speaker bios and much more here.

Be sure to check out the conference photos on the SEJ2007 Flickr group photo page.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Breakfast Session: Introductory Remarks

Photo by Beth Parke. Click to enlarge.

Sunday events took place at Stanford's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Attendees heard substantive remarks from Harold Mooney, Paul S. Achilles professor of environmental biology at Stanford's Center for Environmental Sciences and Policy, and an international leader in global change research.

Audio file (MP3/21MB/23:22). Be patient; volume increases after a minute.

Morning Session: Environmental Myths of the West: Will Your Next Story Be a Lie?

Photo by Beth Parke. Click to enlarge.

National Public Radio environment correspondent and author John Nielsen conducts a lively interview with Patricia Limerick, myth-buster, historian, recipient of the MacArthur "genius" grant, professor and faculty director of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
More Sunday photos.

Audio file (MP3/50MB/54:57)

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Concurrent Sessions 3: THE CLIMATE: Feverish Temperatures: Human Health on a Warmer Planet

Photo by Beth Parke. Click to enlarge.

Freelance writer and author Francesca Lyman moderated a panel of two medical doctors and the national program director of the US EPA's Global Change Research Program, which discussed changing ecosystems and their life forms, evolving diseases and the potential impacts on human health.

Audio file (MP3/65MB/1:10:18)

Concurrent Sessions 3: THE POLICY: Californians on the Front Lines: The Shifting Politics of the Environment

Moderated by The Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin, this panel discussed the ripple effects of California's defiant efforts to address its environmental challenges with the creation of innovative policies of its own.

Audio file (MP3/50MB/54:45)

Concurrent Sessions 4: THE OCEAN: A Rising Tide of Ocean Plagues

This panel, moderated by Ken Weiss of the Los Angeles Times, looked at industry's role in the changing dynamics of sea-borne disease, as previously harmless pathogens turn lethal as they combine with man-made contaminants.

Audio file (MP3/64MB/1:09:36)

Mini-Tour 6: Google's Green Fringe Benefits

Wisconsin Public Radio's Chuck Quirmbach and Business 2.0's Todd Woody and attendees toured the Googleplex to learn about the company's unique employee benefits, including free, organic meals and on-site dry-cleaning; massage therapy and doctor's appointments; Wi-Fi-enabled employee shuttle buses that take the carbon out of the commute; a $5,000 subsidy for the purchase of fuel-efficient cars; and a solar-powered carport to charge a fleet of plug-in hybrid vehicles to be used for an employee car-sharing service.


Grilling Google's tour guide. Photo by Clem Henriksen. Click to enlarge.	Google's solar panels. Photo by Clem Henriksen. Click to enlarge.	Behind the tour-goers is one of the electric cars that buzz around Google's Mountain View campus. Photo by Clem Henriksen. Click to enlarge.

Mini-Tour 7: Driving the Future: From Cellulosic Ethanol to Plug-In Hybrids

James Zhang, VP of business development at Mendel Biotechnology, in lab for plants-to-ethanol research. Photo by Charlotte Kidd. Click to enlarge.

Miguel Llanos of MSNBC.com and Jim Motavalli of E/The Environmental Magazine led this tour in which SEJ members had the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the Bay Area's pioneering fleet of plug-in hybrid cars; ride in an AC Transit fuel-cell bus; watch Pacific Gas & Electric's wonder Prius spin an electric meter backwards in a futuristic display of grid-connected alternative fuel technology; and visit the lab of Mendel Biotechnology where cellulosic ethanol research is performed on switchgrass, arabidopsis and other fuel-friendly exotic plants. More photos.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Breakfast Session: Can This Relationship Be Saved? Why Journalists and Scientists Just Don't Communicate

Jeff Burnside of WTVJ NBC 6 News, Miami moderated this enlightening panel which explored the two very different worlds of science and journalism, and where common ground might be found. Audio and video are provided courtesy of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University.

Audio file (MP3/64MB/1:09:40)
Video

Opening Plenary: Covering Climate Change

Following welcoming remarks by Jeff Koseff, co-director of Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment and a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the session began with a showing of a short, edited video of Wednesday's eight-hour pre-conference News Executives Roundtable on Covering Climate Change. Eighteen news executives from across the country participated in the roundtable, organized by SEJ and the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting (more). Following the video, panelists tackled the complex and controversial subject of effective climate-change coverage, with a view to possible solutions. The session was moderated by Associated Press science writer Seth Borenstein.

Here's the audio recording (MP3/87MB/1:34:39).

Concurrent Sessions 1: THE CLIMATE: Changing with Climate Change: Can Industries, Investors and Insurers Adapt?

This panel, moderated by Felicity Barringer of The New York Times, discussed various options and answers to the many questions this issue raises.

Audio file (MP3/67MB/1:13:42)

Concurrent Sessions 1: THE CRAFT I: The Freelance Pitch-Slam

Back by popular demand, this session gave participants 60 seconds each to read prepared pitches to a panel of magazine editors.

Audio file (MP3/68MB/1:14:46)

Concurrent Sessions 2: THE CLIMATE: Nature out of Sync: Trees Flowering in January?

Photo by Ken Friedman. Click to enlarge.

The San Francisco Chronicle's Jane Kay moderated this session looking at examples of changing habitat and migration patterns, and studies examining life-cycle disruptions and what the future may hold.

Audio file (MP3/69MB/1:15:39)

Concurrent Sessions 2: THE CRAFT I: Toxicological Curve Balls

This session, moderated by Janet Raloff of Science News, examined new findings indicating that the dose actually does not always make the poison.

Audio file (MP3/50MB/54:24)

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Day Tour: Green Buildings to Greenbelts: San Francisco Has It All

Shredded blue jeans in the walls of the new CA Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. Photo by Amy Gahran, via Flickr/SEJ2007 (CC license).

On the second day of the conference, attendees headed into the field, participating in one of nine tours. The Green Buildings to Greenbelts tour, led by James Bruggers of The (Louisville) Courier-Journal and Jim Carlton of The Wall Street Journal, journeyed to San Francisco to explore the new California Academy of Sciences building, currently under construction in Golden Gate Park, with a green domed roof, radiant flooring and shredded blue jeans as insulation in the walls. Tour partipants also climbed atop the Moscone Convention Center to get a look at one of the nation's largest solar-roof installations; visited the Presidio, a former military base turned into an amazing urban national park; and checked out an environmentally friendly low-income housing project.

Amy Gahran, editor of the unofficial SEJ2007 blog and snappy photographer that she is, got a bunch of great shots throughout the day and posted them on the SEJ2007 Flickr group photo page for all to enjoy.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Evening Plenary: Clean, Secure & Efficient Energy: Can We Have It All?

Photo by Beth Parke. Click to enlarge.

Our first plenary session of the conference was organized in conjunction with Stanford University's Aurora Forum, "an ongoing series of free and open public conversations featuring people who are adept at turning vision into action for positive social change."

Moderator Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, introduced a diverse panel of speakers who engaged in an hour of lively, on-stage discussion of energy issues, followed by an hour question-and-answer period with SEJ members in the audience.

Listen to the audio recording (MP3/113MB/2:02:55).

Photo by Beth Parke. Click to enlarge.

News and Announcements

See the winners of SEJ's 6th annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment.

SEJ's 2007 David Stolberg Meritorious Service Award was won by Mike Dunne, posthumously. The award was accepted on his behalf by Freda and Brad Dunne, his wife and one of their sons.

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Telephone: (215) 884-8174 Fax: (215) 884-8175
sej@sej.org

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