Category Archives: Research

Environmental lessons I learned in Australia

By Cameryn Cass

The first time I left America, I didn’t get very far: I went to Toronto for a mini-holiday. Though only four and a half hours from my hometown, it felt much farther than that. It was exciting and new and – dare I say – foreign. Unlike my 19-year-old peers, I was drawn to the city for something other than legal drinking: I went in search of adventure.

You see, I enjoy living outside my comfort zone. I figure the more I do, the larger that zone will become.

Former Great Lakes Echo writer Cameryn Cass on the scene in Australia

So for my final semester at Michigan State, I decided to pack my bags and live 9,370 miles (15,080 kilometers) from home in Sydney, Australia. Instead of studying abroad, I interned at a lovely nonprofit called the Ethics Centre in the heart of the city.

I had the opportunity to write and edit stories and meet philosophers and experience imposter syndrome daily. I got used to spelling color with a “u” and writing the date with the number first, followed by the month. Did you know writing the date with the number sandwiched between the month and year is almost exclusively American? I think we ought to reconsider how we write that. And also adopt the metric system.

But, back to Australia. My internship went from February to mid-April, but I stayed until July 24 (24 July). I saw Brisbane and sat beside kangaroos all afternoon at Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo. I hiked at Cradle Mountain and easily fell in love with Hobart, Tasmania.

I visited New Zealand and its Hobbiton, having never seen the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings films and left a piece of my heart in Queenstown.

And I got lost in the equatorial heat and traffic lightless roads of Bali, visiting my cousin there for 15 days. Continue reading →

Lessons from the brink

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Eric Freedman

By Eric Freedman

Director, Knight Center for Environmental Journalism

There’s nothing like almost dying to wake you up to the multiple realities of America’s health care system.

I nearly died in April from a still-unidentified collapse and its complications, including pneumonia, blackouts, heavy bleeding, liver damage and ICU delirium during seven weeks at Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital, four of them on a ventilator.

I have no memory of my first five weeks there.

When it first happened, my children and grandchildren arrived from four states, although I don’t remember their visit or their encouraging words.

For me, the experience highlighted the fragility of life and our vulnerability to sometimes-inexplicable health crises, regardless of how well we’ve taken care of ourselves: eaten – mostly – right, exercised and had regular medical exams and tests.

Beyond that, however, came deeper insights about inequities in the American medical system, starting with access to and the high cost of care.

Medical expenses can push patients and their families without good health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid or VA benefits into a devastating choice between bankruptcy on one hand and foregoing lifesaving treatment on the other hand.

Talk about sticker shock. The retail price – the bottom line – for two days at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital, where my arduous medical journey began in the emergency department: $87,748. The ambulance transfer while I was comatose and in critical condition from Sparrow to Henry Ford Hospital’s ICU: $13,520. Continue reading →

Knight Center’s Bruno Takahashi involved with report on health and climate change in South America: “Now that we know, we must act”

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By Finn Hopkins

Dr. Bruno Takahashi, research director at the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism has been involved in the production and publication of a 2022 report that explores the intersection of climate change and public health in South America.

The 2022 South America report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change was published on March 28^th, 2023. The Lancet Countdown South America (LCSA) investigates links between public health and climate change in 12 countries in South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela and Suriname.

The LCSA is the product of 21 academic institutions and UN agencies with 28 researchers from various disciplines. The 2022 report seeks to provide evidence and support to decision makers to combat the climate challenges facing South America.

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Knight Center Documentary Grant competition for 2023

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The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism will award up to 3 grants of $3,500 each to support the making of environment-related documentaries (video, audio or other digital media) b MSU faculty-student teams.

Here are the essentials

Deadline for submission: March 14, 2023, at 5 p.m.
Decisions to be announced approximately March 20, 2023
Open to faculty and students from all departments at MSU.
Maximum award: $3,500 for 1 year.

These must be documentaries, not public service announcements or advocacy pieces.
The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism must be credited for underwriting the project.
The Knight Center will be entitled to use your documentary, including linking on our website and presentation in classes, workshops and other activities.
Allowable expenses include travel, essential equipment, supplies, pay for students and festival & competition entry fees. All expenditures must comply with MSU procedures and rules. Any equipment purchased remains the property of MSU. Grant funds must be expended with one year from the date of approval by MSU Contracts and Grants.

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