Category Archives: Uncategorized

The climigrants are coming, the climigrants are coming – maybe. Is the Great Lakes region ready?

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Eric Freedman

Knight Center director Eric Freedman is the lead author of a package of stories on the possibility of climate migrants moving to the Great Lakes region to escape forest fires of Western states, flooding along the saltwater coasts and ever-rising temperatures causing drought in different corners of the continent.

His main story for Crain’s Detroit Business, Crain’s Chicago Business and Crain’s Cleveland Business tackles the question of who may make the move and how well-prepared – or ill-prepared – Great Lakes communities are to accommodate them.

His sidebar looks at how changing environmental, social and economic climates have long fueled other migrations to the region, including settlement by European immigrants and their descendants in the 1800s and the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the factories of Detroit, Youngstown, Akron, Chicago, Gary and Cleveland in the first half of the 20th century.

Murder in Brazil highlights dangers to environmental journalists

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Dominic Phillips

In a column for NBC News, Knight Center director Eric Freedman discusses how the recent murder of British journalist Dom Phillips in the Brazilian Amazon is a grim reminder of the perils that reporters face when covering controversial environmental issues and events.

Freedman, who researches challenges and obstacles to environmental coverage, puts the murder of Phillips and the Indigenous rights activist who accompanied them into the context of how powerful and greedy interests use violence, threats, economic clout, unfair laws, abuse of authority and political ruthlessness to prevent independent reporting on topics such as illegal mining and logging, poaching and pollution.

Freedman’s column also explains how such attacks on environmental journalists occur around the world, including in the U.S. and Canada, and how those responsible usually face no punishment.

Knight Center director reports on trafficking in wildlife skulls

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Knight Center director Eric Freedman explores the dark world of illegal trafficking of wildlife skulls in “The Bone Collectors,” the cover story in the winter issue of Earth Island Journal.

It’s a story of greed, intrigue, science, conspiracies, mysticism, collectors, corruption and investigators.

It’s a story of a wide range of animals, many of them endangered or threatened, including helmeted hornbills, Bornean orangutans, tigers, walruses, African antelopes and rhinos.

And it’s a story that stretches from the MSU Museum and the Smithsonian to Southeast Asia to Alaska to the U.S.-Canadian border.

As for long-term implications, Freedman writes, “Experts warn that the illegal trade in skulls and other wildlife parts creates a major obstacle to the preservation of biodiversity.”

Open call for 2022 proposals for high school journalism and environmental science collaborations

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To encourage collaboration between high school journalism and environmental science classes, we invite teachers to submit proposals for innovative class projects in which journalism students will report about field research by environmental science students. Our principal goals are:

  • to help young prospective journalists better understand and explain to the public how science is done
  • to help environmental science students learn to use the media to explain their work to the public.
  • To promote environmental and science journalism.

The Knight Center intends to award 1-year grants of $2,000 to up to 3 high schools: $1,000 to the journalism program and $1,000 to the environmental science program for equipment, software or scholarships. In addition, the Knight Center will pair each school with a professional journalist to serve as a mentor to participating students and teachers.

Here are the details:

  • Your proposal must include a project description (750 words maximum), the names and contact information for a partnering journalism and environmental science teacher from the same high school; grade levels of participating classes; and the estimated number of students in the participating classes. A proposal form is attached.
  • Your projects must generate student-produced news or feature stories with visuals (photos and/or graphics) for print, online, audio and/or video that your school will disseminate. The Knight Center will also disseminate these stories to the public through our website, and some stories may be posted on Great Lakes Echo (greatlakesecho.org), the center’s award-winning online regional environmental news service.
  • Grantees must comply with MSU financial reporting procedures.
  • Grantees (students, teachers and professional mentors) will be invited to a one-day workshop at MSU in Fall 2022.
  • Application deadline: November 29, 2021. Awards will be announced by January 14, 2022. Projects should begin in March 2022 and be completed with a final report by the end of December 2022.
  • Read about the successful 2018-2019 grantees at https://knightcenter.jrn.msu.edu/2019/03/06/four-high-schools-win-journalism-environmental-science-grants-from-the-knight-center/

Send along a Grant Application Cover Sheet with the following information:

  • School name and address
  • Participating journalism teacher (name, email, phone)
  • Participating environmental science teacher (name, email, phone)
  • Project description (750 words maximum): What do you intend to do (scientific research
    and journalistic coverage) and how? What are your goals for the project? How will you
    assess accomplishments?
  • Titles and grade levels of participating classes:
    • Journalism:
    • Environmental science
  • Name, title, email and phone of administrator authorizing submission of the proposal:

Submit by November 29th to Barb Miller at mille384@msu.edu

If you have questions, email Eric Freedman at freedma5@msu.edu