Welcome again to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our staff speaking. Tell us what you assume at [email protected].
Re-plumbing the West
This week, a number of water-related initiatives within the US caught our consideration. First up: $60 million will go to initiatives to make the Rio Grande extra resilient in New Mexico and West Texas, based on an AP Information story shared by Editorial Director Rebecca Worby.
Becca says:
We hear a lot in regards to the Colorado River, however in fact it’s not the one river system within the American West harassed by drought and demand. An irrigation supervisor in a single Rio Grande district that’s already making efforts to “decelerate runoff and hold sediment from clogging channels that feed the river” described this work as “re-plumbing” the West.
Going swimmingly
In different watery information, the Biden-Harris Administration introduced practically $240 million for brand new fish passage initiatives. What are fish passage initiatives? Something that helps fish transfer extra freely: dam removing, fish ladders, culvert enhancements and extra. These might sound mundane, however the outcomes are sometimes dramatic.
We’ve coated such initiatives right here at RTBC, notably in a narrative written by Kea Krause final 12 months about the gorgeous revival of Maine’s Penobscot River after dams have been eliminated. And good friend of RTBC Ben Goldfarb, who’s at work on a complete e book about fish, wrote a narrative (which initially appeared in Hakai Journal) about how culvert enhancements are saving migratory fish.
What else we’re studying
🥤 Is Biodegradable Plastic Actually a Factor? — shared by Contributing Editor Michaela Haas from the New York Occasions
🛍️ The Denmark secret: the way it turned the world’s most trusting nation — and why that issues — shared by RTBC founder David Byrne from The Guardian
🏢 The Architect Who Made Singapore’s Public Housing the Envy of the World — shared by David Byrne from the New York Occasions
Elsewhere in our channels…
At a latest convention about nonprofit media, David Bornstein, co-founder of the Options Journalism Community, instructed RTBC Government Editor Will Doig about an AI program that the community is growing. Its goal, based on the announcement put up, is to determine and floor information tales about local weather change “that shift protection from ‘unsolvable and apocalyptic’ to solutions-focused journalism.”
“The know-how remains to be in improvement,” Will notes, “however apparently it’s already very correct.”
