Journalism & Media

 By KEN WEISS

tBy JAN KNIGHT

New York Times' science section grows smaller while content increases, trend study shows

Although The New York Times' Science Times section grew smaller in 2000, editorial content increased while advertising decreased, according to a random sample analysis spanning 20 years.

 SEJ's board, members and staff have raised nearly $40,000 since June toward our $103,000 Endowment Challenge. That's good progress, but there's an even bigger mountain to climb in order to meet the challenge by May 31.

By CHRIS BOWMAN

Daffodils in January. Wildfires in February. Bermuda shorts in March.

Like seemingly everything in the environment these days, this year's SEJ annual conference has been scheduled remarkably earlier than usual: Sept. 5-9 at Stanford University.

The coals fueling your Labor Day barbeque will still be glowing as you pack for the pleasant climes of Stanford, heart of California's Silicon Valley.

By JEFF BURNSIDE

 The intensifying drive to maximize newspaper websites means print reporters may get pulled in several new directions.

What's more, they'll be expected to do more in the same amount of time for no additional pay, and face the looming possibility of doing something akin to television news reporting – with little or no training.

So why are some leading environmental journalists embracing all this?

Today's environmental journalists are exploring a range of pressing issues including some serious contenders for "story of the century" even before the century is into its teens.

A visit to a boot camp before the last Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Vermont opened the door for a special report on air pollution in San Diego by a webonly publication, voiceofsandiego.org

Reporter Rob Davis, who covers environmental issues for the Internet-based nonprofit news outlet, gives lots of credit to the special training and insights of the boot camp followed up by the annual conference. And, he also got help from fellow SEJ members.

 Jan Daniels has a new job as the founder/director of Eco Expressions, an environmental writing program based in San Diego, CA and Hailey, ID, that helps solidify the outdoor experience for students with scientific and creative writing. www.EcoExpressions.org

In January, Scribner released Mark Harris' book on green burial, "Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial." See review on page 22.

THE WORST HARD TIME: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THOSE WHO SURVIVED THE GREAT AMERICAN DUST BOWL
By Timothy Egan
 Houghton Mifflin, $28

Reviewed by EMMA BROWN

When I bought Timothy Egan's "Lasso the Wind" last summer in Ashland, Ore., the bookstore owner chuckled and said, "Tim Egan, lucky guy, you know he covers the West for The New York Times?" I said yeah, that's a job I'd like to have. She shook her head and said, "He can write whatever he wants and no one back East knows whether he's telling the truth."

CARBON FINANCE

Sonia Labatt and Rodney R. White

Wiley Finance, $101.99

Reviewed by CRAIG SAUNDERS

Climate change has serious financial ramifications and opportunities for business. In their new book "Carbon Finance," University of Toronto professors Sonia Labatt and Rodney White describe the economic ABCs of climate change.