Recently in Knoxville, the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists sponsored an environmental journalism conference at Calhoun's On the River. The conference had guest speakers from all over the United States that discussed environmental issues in Tennessee and the world.

The conference was divided into four sessions, each covering different subjects relating to the environment and journalism. During lunch, conference participants were given a presentation on the history of environmental journalism by Jim Detjen, director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University.

SESSION I

The first session of the conference focused on the importance of clean energy.

A distinguished scientist from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Meng-Dawn Cheng, talked about the issue of air quality. He began by saying, that in order to understand air quality in our area, we need to understand air quality around the world.

According to Cheng, in order to understand the consequences of no action to improve air quality, we need only ask ourselves: "How long can you hold your breath?"

Air quality is an environmental issue that we cannot ignore, since we are confronted with it in our daily lives. Knoxville residents are used to air quality alerts that advise us to limit our time outdoors on hot days because of pollution levels.

Air quality impacts our daily lives on a number of levels. An individual's respiratory and cardiovascular health can be compromised by poor air quality. The environment can suffer, resulting in poor visibility and forests dying off from too many pollutants in the atmosphere. Globally, we can see the negative impact in the form of climate change.

Director of the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, Randall Gentry, discussed the sustainability of clean energy. The main focus of ISSE is on carbon management and transportation in Appalachia. What does it take for an energy source to be considered sustainable?

Sustainability Science has become a recognized science, like microbiology. Scientists now understand that the idea of "stationarity is dead." We cannot make the right decision in an environmental disaster if we base our action on probability. Since the environment is always changing, there are no constants and past events cannot accurately predict the future.

Executive director of East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition, Johnathan Overly, which is one of 85 clean fuel coalitions in the U.S., talked about transportation and the need to develop alternative fuels. The U.S. hit its peak fuel production in the 70's, but the demand has continued to steadily increase. "This is not a sustainable curve," Overly said.

The switch to clean energy can be simple. Reduce our energy consumption, eliminate our unsustainable energy sources and replace them with sustainable alternatives.

Reduce. Eliminate. Replace.

Executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Dr. Steven Smith, discussed what we can do to reduce the environmental footprint we leave from energy production. The main focus of SACE deals with climate policy, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

The southern U.S. was opposed to climate crisis solutions until recently. Tennessee is still behind in the environmental field, but through the efforts of Gov. Bredesen by creating green jobs, Tennessee is now moving in the right direction.

According to Smith, we need to do more to educate people on what they can do, personally, to reduce their environmental footprint. Tennesseans need to know the negative impacts of mining for coal in the Smokey Mountains, and we all need to think about what kind of a world we are leaving for our grandkids.

At least 80 percent of our pollution problems come from energy production and use. If we can educate people on what they can do to reduce the damage, we can fix a big part of the issues, without having to spend a lot of money.

SESSION II

The second session of the conference featured a panel of speakers that talked about environmental law and policy.

Senior regional director with the National Parks Conservation Association, Don Barger, led the group through an exercise to demonstrate the steps someone in park services must go through in order to get something approved.

The main goal of the NPCA is conservation of natural resources.

In his ten years with NPCA, Barger has worked hard to protect southeastern parks from air pollution and other threats to the environment. He says people need to be more responsible and proactive in how we protect our natural resources.

The effects of climate change are already altering our ecosystems. In parks, plant hardiness zones are changing. Plants that once grew in one region can no longer survive in that climate and die off. Climate change is not only affecting plant life. Scientists predict that by 2020 there will be no glacier left in Glacier National Park, and eventually no Joshua trees in Joshua Tree National Park.

Barger commented that in the near future we will have to explain to our children why the parks have these names, and why we did not do more to protect them.

UT assistant professor of economics, Christian Vossler, discussed the methods used to estimate the benefits of environmental goods and place a value on them. By evaluating environmental policy we can find the most effective way of meeting goals at low cost.

Economists use environmental policy tools to help guide them in decision-making. In the past economists based decisions on tradition, a "one size fits all" approach. Tradition has evolved into an incentive-based approach, which rewards positive action and encourages environmental awareness.

Information Disclosure is another tool economists rely on to facilitate change. In Tennessee, road signs that alert citizens to limit their driving because of pollution can in return reduce the amount of tailpipe emissions released for that day. Companies are inclined to be environmentally friendly because of the Toxics Release Inventory Program, which tells consumers what individual companies are releasing into the environment. A bad report can lower the stock market value of a company.

Incentives are a way to cleaning up the environment without having to spend a lot of money.

By giving people incentives for being environmentally responsible we can change public behavior. If being "green" becomes the new social norm, incentives will no longer be necessary.

Vossler gave the example of littering. Growing up, our parents told us not to litter. As kids, we did not understand why, we only knew we should not litter. The idea that littering is bad has become a social norm that we all accept. Caring about the environment may be the next new social norm.

UT professor of law, Dean Rivkin, said that economists know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

Rivkin talked about the "common-law nuisance action" that North Carolina brought against the Tennessee Valley Authority in 2002. Pollutants from TVA's plants were being carried through the air into North Carolina and having a negative impact on people's health and the environment.

The question is why didn't Tennessee file a similar suit against TVA, since the same thing is happening in our state?

Rivkin said that in order to protect our environment we need to "internalize externalities". That means we need to follow environmental issues back to their source and hold those individuals responsible for their actions.

SESSION III

Session three featured a panel of speakers who talked about coal mining in Appalachia and the effects it has on the environment, focusing on the TVA ash spill.

A research scientist from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Dr. T.J. Blasing, explained the effects of energy production and use in southern Appalachia.

Blasing noted that carbon emissions are higher in states that have, low populations and coal reserves. He continued by saying that despite how fuel efficient your car may be, your tailpipe emissions depend on your power source. For example, an electric car will have lower tailpipe emissions if it gets its electricity from a renewable energy source like wind power, instead of a power plant.

The editor of Appalachian Voices, Dr. Bill Kovarik talked about the TVA ash spill and the coverage it received. Coverage of the ash spill that took place in December 2008 reported a wide variety of toxin levels on tests done after the disaster. Some test results said that toxin levels were at 300 times above the standard, whereas TVA's results stated that toxin levels were 40 times below the standard. This created a very misleading picture.

There has continued to be such extensive coverage of the disaster that, in Kovarik's opinion, reporting done on the TVA ash spill is an example of outstanding journalistic work.

He pointed out that environmental groups can now conduct tests and report the results directly to the public, creating a complete journalistic circuit. Citizen advocates have also contributed a great deal by stepping up to fill gaps left by newsroom cuts.

TVA spokesperson, Barbara Martocci, explained what action TVA was taking to clean up after the spill. She started by saying that many of the reported numbers are accurate, things are as bad as they look.

TVA's first concern was clearing roads and getting the ash out of the Emory River. They put dams and dykes in place to keep the ash from traveling down-stream and started dredging the riverbed. TVA has planned an extensive three phase dredging process to remove the ash from the river.

Regional campus coordinator for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Liz Veazey, talked about what people should learn from this disaster. The TVA spill makes us think about the need for alternative energy sources. Clean energy could not result in this kind of environmental disaster.

Veazey said that no matter how you look at it, there is no such thing as clean coal. If we use coal, we have to find a place to keep the waste, and nobody wants a toxic ash pool in their backyard.

SESSION IV

The fourth session of the conference was about what to expect working as an environmental journalist.

Environmental reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel, Scott Barker, explained how a journalist should approach a story like the TVA ash spill.

People need to be told what happened, what went wrong. The first information usually comes from the agency involved. Only after you get the official report, should you begin to dig deeper. A journalist needs to find an independent specialist who can explain the deeper science and make it understandable for the general public.

UT professor of Anthropology, Dr. Gregory Button, did research on environmental disasters for 24 years before coming to UT. He pointed out that every disaster is different, it all depends on location and the impact it has on the people living there.

Regardless of whether it is a natural or unnatural disaster, the response to the disaster could be more harmful to the environment and humans, than the initial event.

Editor of Hellbender Press, Rikki Hall, said that a focus on natural resources in a major component of environmental journalism.

Environmental journalists are leading the way in placing a societal value on our resources, by showing how our actions impact the environment and affect the quality of our lives.

A reporter for WATE TV, Ann Keil, revealed her top five tips to being a great journalist. The most important thing a journalist can do is stick to their morals.

Number one on Keil's list is coffee talk. A great journalist should never treat people like sound-bites. Talking to people who were affected can be a great way of getting inside information, but it is important to treat them with respect.

Number two is show-and-tell. A journalist should never underestimate the power of an image. Adding video or pictures to your story can help communicate emotions that words cannot.

Third is having a little black book. Keep a book with the contact information of everyone you talk to. People may be interested in what happened to someone and you might need to do a follow-up story to show how things worked out.

Keil's fourth tip is to remember to keep things fair and balanced. A good journalist tries to show both sides of a story equally. You need to be fair and let everyone be heard.

Her fifth tip involves busy work. A great journalist can never do too much research. Stay curious, and always ask questions.