Public

 By BILL DAWSON

Many signs suggest that environmental topics – not just environmental news, in the strict sense – are assuming a bigger place in the journalistic universe, perhaps becoming an enduring Big Deal for editors, news directors, network executives and other media decision-makers.

(Historical note for newcomers to environmental journalism: The prospects for wide-ranging Big Deal status for the beat have waxed and waned in the past.)

 By TIM WHEELER

A reader sent me an email recently asking why my newspaper so often seemed to take a "negative slant" on the day's news. "All we hear is crime, the death of real estate, toxins, and maybe if someone is in a good mood something about how much fun this place is," the frustrated reader lamented.

 By BILL DAWSON

In a time of ever-accelerating change in American journalism, it probably shouldn't have come as that much of a surprise that one of the big winners in SEJ's 6th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment was a documentary with the trappings of a cheesy horror movie.

 By CHRIS BOWMAN

The Society of Environmental Journalists broke major ground at this year's national conference in attracting 18 news executives to day-long dialogues with experts on global warming, one of the biggest and most difficult-to-tell stories of our time.

The Clean Tech Revolution: the Next Big Growth And Investment Opportunity
by Ron  Pernick and Clint Wilder

 Reviewed by SUSAN MORAN

Sacred Sea: A Journey to Lake Baikal
By Peter Thomson
Reviewed by Krestia DeGeorge

Sometimes, being the biggest, the oldest and the deepest thing can define its fundamental nature.

A case in point: Russia's Lake Baikal. In his new book, "Sacred Sea: A Journey to Lake Baikal," SEJ member Peter Thomson makes a strong case that the lake's superlative features set it apart from the rest of the world's large freshwater seas.

By JEFF BURNSIDE

When I heard the anchor in my earpiece introducing me reporting live from an undersea research lab, I could hardly believe all the technical aspects were working.

But they were. So I figured I'd better stop being amazed and actually start talking. On Sept. 20, I was the first reporter ever to broadcast live from Aquarius, the world's only undersea lab, nine miles off Key Largo, Fla. next to a coral reef about 60 feet deep. Don't screw it up, I told myself.

 By JEFF BURNSIDE

America's television network news operations are increasing their coverage of environmental issues, reflecting a pendulum swing of interest among Americans in general.

By AL CROSS

Many if not most environmental stories have their roots in rural places. Those are the places where extractive industries do almost all their extracting, where America ultimately puts much of its solid waste, where farm fields get the fertilizers that create dead zones in the sea.

 By BILL DAWSON

Jane Kay is one of environmental journalism's most honored and respected reporters. The San Francisco Chronicle's environment writer, she is a two-time winner of the Scripps Howard Foundation's Edward J. Meeman Award.

Last September, for a diverse portfolio of articles, she received the first-place award in the "Outstanding Beat Reporting - Print" category in SEJ's 6th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment. The judges said: