Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You
The Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Evironment has spearheaded an effort to increase the relevance, importance, and acknowledgment of environmental reporting in the news.
Funded by the Grantham Foundation, the award is the largest journalism prize in North America. The Prize brings with it national recognition as well as a cash value of $75,000, which is far higher than typical in journalism. “We are living in a world that tragically underestimates environmental problems,” say Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham, founders of The Grantham Foundation. “The public deserves ready access to the kind of information and news that only outstanding independent journalism can provide. This is one way to give that kind of reporting the honor, respect, and visibility it needs.” The monetary value reinforces the importance the Grantham Foundation places on environmental reporting, and also entices future journalists and publications to strive for a prize that will lead to more instances of environmental news reaching the general public.
This year marked the first event of the Prize, held at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO), in Narragansett. The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting, was established at GSO to provide science training for journalists and editors to help improve the accuracy and clarity of marine and environmental reporting, offering journalism fellowships in support of diversity and reporting on science and the environment. The Metcalf administers the Grantham Prize as part of its mission to increase the clarity and accuracy of environmental journalism. After the Prize was awarded, The Metcalf Institute organized the seminar to honor the winners.
The winning entry is an investigative series on pollution in and around the location of a shut-down Ford Motor Company assembly plant. Nine journalists, from The Record of Bergen County, New Jersey spent six months investigating how actions of the Ford Motor Company, government officials, and organized crime exposed northern New Jersey residents to environmental risks, sickness, and disease. The series, “Toxic Legacy,” investigated the effects of decades of pollution, and culminated in action by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The editor, Frank Scandale, and two of the team members, Timothy Nostrand (Project Leader) and Alex Nussbaum (environmental reporter), attended the Grantham Prize Seminar to discuss their story.
In Mr. Scandale’s editorial about the investigative series he offered this summation: “From the boardrooms of one of the most powerful companies in America to the back yards of one of the poorest neighborhoods in New Jersey comes the tale of Toxic Legacy…For years, the Ford Motor Co. ran the largest assembly plant in the nation. There in Mahwah [New Jersey], Ford painted millions of cars. From that sprung millions of gallons of waste. That paint residue contained toxic elements. For years and years, those elements were dumped on land where poor people lived, in watersheds, in farmland, along roads, over fences and down mine shafts. Once it was clear that this toxic goo had to be removed, the government did its best to ensure that happened. So it said. What The Record found was that time and time again, the areas declared cleaned up were not. Time and time again, whatever the government and Ford deemed safe simply was not.”
The Grantham Prize jurors have hailed the “Toxic Legacy” series, which ran a year ago, as “watchdog reporting of the highest order, marked by exhaustive reporting, stellar writing, and an innovative multimedia presentation that sets a new standard.”
After the awards ceremony, the afternoon session of the seminar was dedicated to a panel discussion. Nearly twenty high-level editors and producers from around the country addressed the barriers and solutions to producing excellent environmental news coverage. Seminar panelists discussed their news outlets’ experiences with environmental reporting, and the need to expand or possibly “repackage” environmental coverage to encompass additional news beats such as business, technology, or public health. Attendees also brainstormed on the most effective means of engaging the public in complex environmental stories, including addressing issues of special significance to the target audience, or focusing on federal public policy concerns. Panelists concluded that journalism is on the cusp of major changes, and environmental journalists will have to adjust in ways that will both break new creative ground and increase the trust of news consumers. Metcalf Institute intends to build upon this dialogue in its 2007 Grantham Prize Seminar to be held in September.
The damage that we have inexorably caused the Earth’s delicate systems will no longer be relegated to embedded blurbs in Section F in the Saturday edition of your local newspaper. As we head into the 21st century, be prepared to hear and understand more about environmental concerns, issues, and discoveries.
The three Grantham Prize finalists received Awards of Special Merit and $5,000 for their work.
- Douglas Fischer of The Oakland Tribune, for his series “A Body’s Burden: Our Chemical Legacy.”
- Elizabeth Kolbert of The New Yorker for “The Climate of Man,” a three-part series about the science and effects of climate change and its intimate relationship to civilization. Ms. Kolbert was not in attendance at the seminar.
- John Sherman and Beau Kershaw of WBAL-TV, Baltimore, Md., for “Dirty Secret.”
More information about the winning entries is available at the Grantham Prize website.
The Metcalf Institute has issued a call for entries for the 2007 Grantham Prize. Interested applicants should visit the Grantham Prize website, or the Metcalf Institute website.
