By Bill Kovarik
Journalism Professor
Radford University (Radford, Va.)
Hurricanes are environmental events, and reporters are usually prepared to cover events. It's what we trained for, and, in many cases, news coverage on the ground is excellent.
However, reporters are not usually prepared to cover the environmental factors that contribute to disasters and tend to make them much worse.
We need to understand the less obvious but no-less-important problems that are making hurricanes more devastating.
Coastal development, the loss of buffering wetlands and barrier islands, the placement of oil and chemical facilities, and the long-term safety of bridges, dams and levees are among the more difficult environmental issues that need to be explored, especially after Hurricane Katrina.
There are also broader, long-term environmental questions that need to be asked. An obvious one involves how much global warming and sea level rise are contributing to hurricane intensity. New efforts toward energy conservation and the development of renewable resources in your community is another.
In each of these areas, briefing yourself with national-level sources before seeking out local and state officials is a sound approach. Here are some resources to get you started, organized by topic:
News University, a project of The Poynter Institute funded by the Knight Foundation, offers a short course for professionals about covering water quality. Also, the Society of Environmental Journalists has posted a Web page on environmental coverage of Katrina, and the topic will be on the agenda at the organization's late September conference in Austin, Texas. The conference is intended for working journalists and will be open to the public.
