I most closely associate the phrase "greenhouse gases" with
automobiles, but MSNBC points out that your house may emit twice as much as
your car.
According
to a U.S. Green Building Council report on congressional testimony last month, the
building sector is the biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions,
accounting for 39 percent of such emissions in the country.
The green
supporters say green buildings improve human health, save on water, increase productivity and are less expensive to maintain and operate -- overall a very cost-effective way to dramatically reduce greenhouse
gas emissions.
There
is a new wave of interest in green issues that will certainly wash
years into the future. I wonder if your
newsroom is tapping into this growing
interest with regular common sense stories about how to go green without
being a nut.
MSNBC says by 2010, builders expect to construct at least
half of their homes as "green homes." But what does it mean to be "green"? MSNBC points out:
There are some 80 different local and state green building
organizations and at least two different national groups promoting their own
rules on what constitutes a green home. The result: a contentious war over
whose rules become the national standard for making a house sustainable. It
also means more confusion for homebuyers.
"You can't just go and buy a green home with a magic stamp on it
that you know is green," said Monica Gilchrist, national resource center
coordinator for Global Green USA, which helps people walk through the green
building process.
So, in an attempt to establish a national standard, the U.S. Green Building Council proposed new minimum building guidelines and is asking for
public comment for the next month.
Here is a
site that tries to educate homeowners and buyers on how to go greener and how
to replace current appliances with greener alternatives. Don't forget the landscaping,
too!
Are You an Environmentalist?
My father was a timberman. He harvested trees and considered
himself to be an environmentalist. I grew up around farming, and I don't know a
farmer who does not consider himself or herself to be concerned about the
environment. But I've found that not everyone who uses the earth's resources considers themselves an "environmentalist." When I was in Alaska
last year, I was so struck that those who favored ANWR drilling seemed to reject the label "environmentalist." They seemed to do so by using "environmentalist" in a negative way for those who wanted to stop ANWR drilling.
Here is a
collection of the latest public-opinion polling on
Americans and environmental issues from several organizations.
Consider
this from Public Agenda (keep in mind some of its data is older than I
might like):
Half of Americans say they consider themselves environmentalists,
but that's down from three-quarters of the public in 1989. Yet most Americans,
particularly younger people, also tell survey researchers they expect the
environment to get worse in the 21st century. Although relatively few people
regard the environment as one of the nation's most pressing issues, most regard
it as an important one.
A Gallup
survey in April 2000 found that 67 percent of the public would protect the
environment over economic growth, if forced to choose. Yet 69 percent said it
is ''not necessarily a choice between the two'' in a 1999 Worthlin Worldwide
survey. Some 83 percent of Americans told Pew researchers in October 1999 that
there should be stricter laws on the environment, but questions that ask how
much people are willing to pay for a greener lifestyle get decidedly mixed
responses. When an American Lung Association survey asked how much people would
be willing to pay at the pump for cleaner fuel, there was no majority for any
specific price.
One possible explanation for these mixed signals may be that few
Americans believe pollution has touched their lives. Most people tell pollsters
they feel good about the quality of the environment where they live and haven't
been personally harmed by environmental problems. Another explanation surfaced
in focus groups Public Agenda conducted in 1998. Many participants seemed
convinced of the gravity of environmental problems, but also believed the underlying
cause was human greed and selfishness. Since those human failings couldn't be
easily addressed, the participants said, there isn't much hope for solving the
environmental problems they cause.
NOAA's Two-Week-Notice Clause
If you want to get an opinion about environmental issues
from scientists at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association, the Society of Environmental Journalists reports that you may now
have to wait up to two weeks just to find out if the scientists will be allowed to talk.
Thank the Department of Commerce's new directives for this.
Conquering Water Phobia
The start of summer is a great time to do a piece on the
importance of learning to swim.
The
St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reports:
With swimming season upon us, people who are afraid of the water
are confronted with their fears almost every day, and swim instructors have the
delicate job of patiently teaching them to trust themselves.
Water phobia can be as problematic as being left out of a school
pool party or as traumatic as it was for New
Orleans residents who saw their worst fear pouring in
through the front door.
CNN
says:
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention reports there were more than 3,300 unintentional
drownings in the United
States in 2004. While there are no
statistics on how many of those victims ever took a swimming lesson, the CDC
estimates nine people drown each day.
Do you have swim instructors in your area who are especially
good at working with adults who don't
know how to swim or with kids who are scared to
death? Maybe this could be a summer-long multimedia-diary story.
Men in the Grocery Aisles
A lot more men
are shopping for groceries these days. We do not ask for directions and
don't like to change brands once we have found something that works.
Al's Morning Multimedia: The Drinking Party
I want to pass along this "60 Minutes"
piece for a couple of reasons. It is an interesting story of a family that
made a decision to host their son's prom party that would include drinking.
But
the multimedia lesson here is how this story is broken up into short segments of about a minute each. I wonder what you and what Internet users think of this
segmented way of showing longer videos. There are pre-roll commercials in front
of some of the segments in this piece, but others roll without any ads. This presentation may
be important for your newsrooms to consider as you think about how long your
online videos should run and how you should break the longer pieces.
A Note to 'Morning Meeting' Readers from Al
As Poynter considers how to help you learn the skills of multimedia journalism in 2008, we are coming up with four new seminars that we plan to teach in St. Pete. The first three will be for three days. The fourth will be for six days.
- Storytelling with Audio and Still Photos
- Multimedia Reporting with Video
- Advanced Multimedia Reporting With Video
- The Backpack Journalist Workshop
Let me describe roughly what we are thinking and get your thoughts. What is missing? What works well? Drop me an e-mail at
atompkins@poynter.org. I need this pretty quickly if you want to help shape the 2008 Poynter offerings.
Storytelling with Audio and Still PhotosThis is a soup to nuts how-to, hands-on session teaching people how to collect audio, select soundbites and edit in a
Soundslides-type environment. We will also do some work on reading out loud and sounding like a pro, the importance of natural sound and the ethics of editing. The workshop will also include basic photo and photo editing instruction for reporters who now find themselves capturing the photos that will go along with their multimedia reporting.
Multimedia Reporting with VideoWe will provide cameras and/or the participants could bring their own. We will teach them the very basics -- framing, motion, lighting, motivated zooms and pans. We will teach them sound, the basics of interviewing and then editing. We will teach them basic
Final Cut skills.
Advanced Multimedia Reporting With VideoWe assume the participants in this session know how to work a camera on this one -- so we start at a higher place. We will include ethics discussions about staging, editing and even camera angles. Participants will complete a piece during this session, and we will give them feedback on their work. Framing, lighting and motion will all be included as well.
The Backpack Journalist WorkshopApplicants to this week-long seminar work in a newsroom where they will write, report, photograph and edit the story on their own. They may be TV journalists or multimedia online journalists who are pulling together video stories.
We will assume the participants have the most basic skills to operate a camera even if not at a high level. We will teach the basics of reporting, writing and storytelling. We will teach basics on camera performance. We will teach camera techniques and tricks that experienced backpackers use to capture stories when they are on their own. Then we will move into editing and teach Final Cut techniques. This is for reporters who must now learn to shoot and photojournalists who must now learn how to report.
I suspect we may need to offer some smaller breakout sessions that cater to the specific needs of the participants. Also, if you have a better title than "backpacking," I would be so grateful.
These four sessions will be in addition to many other online and multimedia offerings we will bring your way in 2008, including Online Writing, Multimedia Reporting and Multimedia for College Educators. Don't worry, we are not abandoning our broadcast, print, design, ethics and leadership seminars.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
