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Articles by Curtis Brainard | Email the Author

 

1. The Observatory

   Japan’s Other Environmental Woes

   April 7, 2011 10:45 AM

   The Wall Street Journal distinguished itself on Monday with an article that examined some of the non-nuclear environmental impacts of last month’s natural disasters in Japan. Almost a full month after a massive earthquake and tsunami... Continue reading

2. The Observatory

   Covering “Crazy”

   March 30, 2011 12:57 PM

   The media has a penchant for psychoanalysis that often gets news outlets into trouble. From killers to celebrities to dictators, this year has already born witness to more armchair psychiatry than critics can stomach. As soon as police released a... Continue reading

3. The Observatory

   Quaking in California

   March 22, 2011 02:15 PM

   The 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan on March 11 not only sent a tsunami barreling across the Pacific, but also waves of concern about natural disaster preparedness and nuclear safety elsewhere. In United States, the media have paid <a href=http://www.sej.org/headlines/special-report-big-california-quake-likely-devastate-state... Continue reading

4. The Observatory

   Crisis Juggling in Japan

   March 16, 2011 02:00 PM

   The triple disaster. The triple whammy. Both terms are now common in media accounts of the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear-plant disaster that has literally rocked Japan. Juggling the tripartite story has clearly not been easy for reporters.... Continue reading

5. The Observatory

   Microbes and the Media

   March 8, 2011 10:58 AM

   Claims about extraterrestrial life are once again making headlines. Unlike a December incident involving an assertion about the discovery of arsenic-eating microbes in Mono Lake, however, journalists have treated the latest news with intense skepticism almost from the... Continue reading

6. The Observatory

   “Frack”-tious Reactions

   March 3, 2011 01:45 PM

   The former head of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection is not happy with The New York Times’s Ian Urbina and his series about risks and regulations related to natural-gas drilling, a rapidly growing industry. After the <a href=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/us/series/drilling_down/index.html... Continue reading

7. The Observatory

   Extreme Measures

   February 24, 2011 01:49 PM

   Last week, the journal Nature made a big splash in the press with the publication of two studies which found that manmade climate change has contributed to the intensification of heavy rains and increased the likelihood of floods... Continue reading

8. The Observatory

   Coming to Terms with the “Value” of Life

   February 21, 2011 04:30 PM

   Last week, my colleague Felix Salmon expressed his love for The New York Times’s front-page article on Thursday about federal agencies increasing the value of a “statistical” human life in cost-benefit analyses of various regulations. Salmon... Continue reading

9. The Observatory

   Dr. Search Engine

   February 17, 2011 01:47 PM

   Eighty percent of Internet users seek out health information on the web, according to a survey released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project at the beginning of February. It’s the third most common online activity after... Continue reading

10. The Observatory

    Add It Up

    January 24, 2011 06:03 PM

    In the last two weeks, reporters have repeated false numbers provided by a study and a report (and by their respective press releases) related to the banding of penguins and global warming’s impact on global food... Continue reading

11. The Observatory

    Giffords’ Medical Care

    January 12, 2011 08:30 AM

    Rep. Gabrielle Giffords remained in critical condition on Tuesday afternoon after sustaining a gunshot wound to the head on Saturday, but the head of the trauma center that’s treating her told the press, “She has 101 percent chance... Continue reading

12. The Observatory

    Climate Conundrums

    January 10, 2011 01:16 PM

    2010 was “the year climate coverage ‘fell off the map,’” The Daily Climate, a website that tracks related news and media stories, reported last Wednesday. The assertion, based on a review of the site’s own database as well... Continue reading

13. The Observatory

    Best of 2010: The Observatory

    December 29, 2010 01:11 PM

    1. “New” Media Crucial in Aftermath of Haitian Earthquake With standard telephone, radio, and television communications disabled, “new” media platforms such s Twitter, Skype, and YouTube, were critical to delivering early information about damage and relief efforts in... Continue reading

14. The Observatory

    Climate Change 101

    December 23, 2010 04:45 PM

    A little more than a year ago, there was a feeling among many editors and reporters that the climate-change story had, in a sense, progressed since the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) watershed Fourth... Continue reading

15. The Observatory

    The Right Place for Scientific Debate?

    December 7, 2010 05:07 PM

    First there was the wild speculation about the discovery of extraterrestrial life. Then came widespread, sometimes misguided, coverage of the real news: discovery of a bacterium than can substitute arsenic for phosphorus, one six elements considered... Continue reading

16. The Observatory

    A Life Less Ordinary

    December 3, 2010 01:23 PM

    A bacterium trained to substitute arsenic for phosphorus—one of six elements considered essential for life—in some of its basic cellular functions is stirring widespread, high profile coverage. On Monday, a cryptic NASA press release about the... Continue reading

17. The Observatory

    Close Encounters of the Media Kind

    December 1, 2010 12:42 PM

    Over the last two days, bloggers at a few of the country’s top news outlets have engaged in wild and wholly unsubstantiated speculation about the discovery of alien life. The runaway blogging stems from a cryptic press release... Continue reading

18. Currents

    Drop Out?

    November 19, 2010 01:39 PM

    The University of Colorado at Boulder kicked up a cloud of dust when it announced in August that it had formed a committee to consider the creation of a “new interdisciplinary academic program of information, communication and... Continue reading

19. The Observatory

    How to Place a Story?

    November 18, 2010 10:00 AM

    Despite disruptive changes in the media industry, which have made it more difficult to place stories and develop relationships with journalists, top environmental newsmakers continue to target the biggest, longest-lived news outlets, according to a recent survey. Commissioned by the... Continue reading

20. The Observatory

    Echoes of Grit and Humor

    November 16, 2010 02:30 PM

    If all goes as planned, Tom Henry’s decision to take on more work—in the form of a monthly column for the Great Lakes Echo—will be a win-win situation for the tireless, veteran reporter and the ambitious year-and-a-half-old newsroom... Continue reading

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