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In 2004, the JBL Awards recognized journalists who positively impacted public perception of environmental issues, and impacted policymaking in the U.S. "This year's recipients continue the legacy of Jane Bagley Lehman through their lasting contributions to public awareness and the understanding of environmental issues," said Idelisse Malave, Tides Foundation.
| Chip Giller Five years after its launch, Grist Magazine reaches more than a quarter of a million people through its website and news emails and millions more through partnerships with media including MSNBC.com and Salon.com. With Grist, founder and editor Chip Giller created an e-zine that speaks to a broad, growing audience that relies on the Internet for their main source of information. While half of Grist's readers say they are members of environmental groups, the other half are those not otherwise engaged in the environmental movement. Grist often pairs its new stories with opportunities for readers to take action. An example is Grist's first-to-the-punch coverage on efforts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to dilute the meaning of the national "organic" label. This spring, Grist was the first to report on a USDA plan that would have severely weakened the standards. One day after the story appeared, Grist partners, Working Assets and RedJellyfish.com, cited the story and began circulating electronic action alerts to hundreds of thousands of people. The USDA was beset with calls and emails expressing disapproval of the plan, and less than two weeks after the Grist story ran, the USDA bowed to public pressure and withdrew its proposal. |
| Amanda Griscom Little Grist writer Amanda Griscom Little writes a twice-weekly Muckraker column that Salon.com picked up for weekly syndication to its 3 million readers. For nearly two years, Griscom Little has tracked the Bush Administration's environmental policies, Beltway shenanigans, and the people behind them. For the past year she has also been publishing a monthly interview in Grist with political leaders and environmental luminaries to bring a broad range of high-profile perspectives to the environmental discussion in an engaging, accessible way that will motivate mainstream audiences. Interviewees have included John Kerry, Howard Dean, Robert Redford, Bobby Kennedy Jr., Jim Jeffords, Joe Lieberman, John Mackey (CEO of Whole Foods), as well as U.S. Department of Interior officials Lynn Scarlett and Craig Manson. Recently picked up by MSNBC.com for syndication, her interviews will now reach 10 million readers per month. |
| Colin Woodard One of the few journalists specializing in overseas reporting on the environment, Woodard produces thoughtful, firsthand coverage from places that are often difficult to travel to, like the collapsing ice shelves of the Antarctic, the low-lying atolls of Micronesia, the vanishing jungles of northern Guatemala, and the abandoned chemical plants of southern Albania.Most of Woodard's work focuses on issues of national or global consequence, like marine pollution, climate change, or the development of alternative energy technologies. His articles have been cited widely in scientific and public policy papers, reports, books, and speeches, and reprinted in syndication by publications around the world. His book "Ocean's End," a critically acclaimed account of the crisis in the world's oceans, has been translated into Chinese and has influenced the recommendations of the Pew Oceans Commission and the United States Oceans Commission. His reports on new ocean management technologies helped prompt collaboration between federal, state, and provincial authorities in the U.S. and Canada. His pieces on the legacy of U.S. atomic testing in the Marshall Islands helped the people of Bikini Atoll receive compensation from Washington and may one day allow them to return to their contaminated island. His second book, "The Lobster Coast," has raised public awareness of the value of common property regimes in the management of natural resources like Maine lobster or Caribbean coral reefs. His reporting on Dutch and Danish innovations in recycling, wind power, and industrial ecology have been picked up by newspapers around the world, and in the publications of Worldwatch and the Earth Policy Institute. As a result of his writing, Colin has been invited to speak at numerous conferences around the country, including the inaugural meeting of the Pew Oceans Commission. |
