Center for Environmental Journalism

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Center for Environmental Journalism

Focused on student education, professional development & support for working journalists since 1992.

09/12/2026

Former Ted Scripps Fellow Erin Douglas has a new story out with Inside Climate News, reporting from South Florida on a troubling convergence of electricity debt, extreme heat, and economic vulnerability.

In Homestead, hundreds of families in working-class, majority-Latino farmworker communities have lost power this summer as the city cracks down on past-due electricity bills after years of policies that delayed disconnections.

For families already struggling with rising energy costs, losing electricity during peak summer heat can be more than a financial hardship — it can become a serious threat to health and safety.

Erin’s reporting examines what happens when pandemic-era protections against utility shutoffs disappear while many households’ financial circumstances remain precarious.

Read Erin’s latest reporting with Inside Climate News: https://tr.ee/ja9bHg

We’re proud to see former Ted Scripps Fellows continuing to produce important reporting on climate, energy and environmental issues.

Image: Homestead Downtown Credit: Ivan Curra/Wikimedia Commons

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09/04/2026

Congratulations to our current Ted Scripps Fellow, Ayurella Horn-Muller, on winning two first-place awards— one for social justice reporting and one for political beat reporting at the 2026 Sunshine State Awards, presented by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Florida.

Ayurella, a reporter at Grist, was recognized for her outstanding reporting across both categories. We’re thrilled to see her work honored by SPJ.

Congratulations, Ayurella!

09/02/2026

Former Ted Scripps Fellow Christopher Solomon has published his final project, an in-depth look at Utah’s long-running tensions over federal public lands and the forces shaping their future.

Co-published by RE:PUBLIC Lands Media and The Dispatch, the story traces the history, politics and culture behind Utah’s push for greater control over federal lands—from the state’s relationship with its public lands to the growing debates over national parks, conservation, development and resource extraction.

The story also explores how Utah’s history continues to shape contemporary debates over public lands—and what could be at stake for some of the country’s most iconic landscapes.

Read the full story: https://tr.ee/GW5iuy

Congratulations to Chris on completing this important project and bringing this reporting to readers!

Image: North Six-shooter Peak, Bears Ears National Monument, Utah (Credit: Bob Wick/BLM/Wikimedia Commons)

09/01/2026

In her reporting for The Atlantic, current Ted Scripps Fellow Jenae Barnes examines how a powerful derecho and the prolonged power outage that followed exposed deeper vulnerabilities in Gary, where 75 percent of residents are Black. Decades of deteriorating infrastructure and limited financial resources have left many residents particularly vulnerable to the costs of a disaster.

Residents described throwing away spoiled food, spending money on gas to charge phones and stay cool in their cars, and relying on friends and family with generators. For people dependent on medical equipment, the consequences were even more serious.

The story also explores the broader climate connection. Derechos—powerful, fast-moving windstorms—can cause widespread damage and disrupt power systems across large areas. As extreme weather events become more frequent and severe, power grids and utilities face growing challenges in preparing for events that were once considered unlikely.

Barnes’ reporting shows that extreme weather is not experienced equally. The impacts of a storm can be amplified by aging infrastructure, economic inequality, and decisions about how quickly communities receive assistance and power restoration.

Read Jenae Barnes’ full story in The Atlantic: https://tr.ee/dbveyS

Image Credit: Takingactioningary/Wikimedia Commons

08/28/2026

Join us this Sunday for an afternoon with Len Ackland

Len Ackland, founding director of the Center for Environmental Journalism, will be at Trident Booksellers & Café on August 30 from 2:00–4:00 p.m. for a reading and discussion of his new memoir, Don’t Bury the Lede: From Trauma and Vietnam to Journalism.

The book traces the experiences that shaped Ackland’s path to journalism—from his experiences in Vietnam and early reporting career to his work as editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and his role in founding CEJ at the University of Colorado Boulder.

📅 Sunday, August 30
⏰ 2:00–4:00 p.m.
📍 Trident Booksellers & Café

If you're in Boulder, come join Len for an afternoon of stories, journalism, and conversation.

08/25/2026

Environmental justice, global forces and local impacts

The new class of Ted Scripps Fellows at CU Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism will take the stage at the Colorado Press Association’s Local News Solutions 2026 for a conversation on environmental justice and the forces shaping environmental challenges in Colorado and beyond.

Environmental Justice: Global Forces, Local Impacts will explore how journalists can maintain critical focus on the systems shaping access to a livable environment as global forces rapidly reshape local landscapes—and create new threats and challenges for environmental justice reporting.

📅 Friday, August 28 | 3:45–5:00 p.m.
📍 Torreys Peak, Delta Hotels – Denver/Thornton

Panelists: Jenae Barnes, Sam Brasch, Amanda Eggert, Ayurella Horn-Muller and Sam Price-Waldman
Moderator: Stephen Robert Miller, Assistant Director, Center for Environmental Journalism

Join the conversation at Local News Solutions 2026, taking place August 27–29.

Register here: https://convention.press/program/schedule/

08/24/2026

A new investigative story by former Ted Scripps Fellow Dave Philipps, published by The New York Times, examines how the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s sale of protected wild horses may be creating a pathway for mustangs to end up in slaughterhouses.

The investigation draws on government and livestock inspection records to examine how thousands of wild horses are being sold, and the loopholes that can strip sold mustangs of their legal protections.

As a Ted Scripps Fellow at the Center for Environmental Journalism in 2011–12, Philipps’s fellowship project focused on wild horses and eventually became the basis for his book, Wild Horse Country: The History, Myth, and Future of the Mustang.

Read the full story in The New York Times: https://tr.ee/OdZGdJ

Image Credit: SteppinStars/WikiMedia Commons

08/05/2026

We're proud to celebrate a new book by Len Ackland, founding director of the Center for Environmental Journalism.

Don't Bury the Lede: From Trauma and Vietnam to Journalism is a deeply personal memoir that recounts the experiences that shaped Ackland's life and ultimately led him to journalism, including the lasting impact of his father's death and his experiences as a civilian in Vietnam during the American War. The book reflects on how those defining moments led him to journalism, a profession that would take him from being a reporter at the Des Moines Register and the Chicago Tribune to being the editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists magazine, and ultimately to founding CEJ at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Part memoir, part reflection on journalism, the book offers an intimate look at resilience, reporting, and the experiences that can shape a journalist's path.

Don't Bury the Lede: From Trauma and Vietnam to Journalism is available through Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Bookshop.

Join Len Ackland for a book reading and discussion at Trident Booksellers & Café on August 30, 2:00–4:00 p.m.

Congratulations to Len on this new milestone!

08/04/2026

The West's water challenges are becoming more urgent—and so is the need for strong, evidence-based reporting.

A new feature from CMDI Now highlights the work of The Water Desk, an initiative of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder, and how it supports journalists covering complex water and climate issues across the West.

From providing data and expert sources to mentoring the next generation of environmental journalists, The Water Desk helps reporters make sense of issues that shape communities, ecosystems, and public policy.

As The Water Desk Co-Director Luke Runyon puts it:
"It's so important to build more trust with your audience—to listen to the concerns of your community, and produce journalism that responds to those concerns."

Read the full story to learn how The Water Desk is helping journalists and the public navigate one of the West's defining challenges.

Read the full story: https://tr.ee/gtQh52

Image: Extremely low water levels at Blue Mesa Reservoir, in Colorado’s Curecanti National Recreation Area, earlier this month demonstrate the impact of a winter with limited snowfall and a spring with record-high temperatures. Photo by Mitch Tobin, The Water Desk.

07/30/2026

In a new story, incoming Ted Scripps Fellow Jenae Barnes profiles environmental sociologist Dorceta Taylor, whose latest work as editor of the world's first Encyclopedia of Environmental Justice documents the people, movements, and ideas that have shaped environmental justice across the globe.

The encyclopedia brings together hundreds of contributors and more than 360 entries, creating an important resource that challenges long-standing omissions in environmental scholarship while connecting environmental justice struggles across countries and communities.

Read Jenae's story to learn how Taylor's decades of scholarship are helping reshape the way we understand environmental justice and why documenting these histories matters now more than ever.

Read the story: https://tr.ee/M0KuUD

Image Credit: Courtesy of Dorceta Taylor

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1511 University Avenue 478 UCB
Boulder, CO
80302

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http://www.colorado.edu/cej/

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