By Noelle Wyman Roth
Next week (March 3-8), Duke SRC and UNC SRP will play host to the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources’ (IJNR) North Carolina Institute. This “learning expedition” is an opportunity for a group of journalists to learn firsthand about environmental issues in central and coastal North Carolina. (And, of course, to get ideas for news stories that are related to Duke and UNC research.) The journalists that will be participating on this trip hail from all over the country—North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Washington DC, Texas, Rhode Island, California—and report for both local and national news agencies and organizations.
The North Carolina Institute will kick off in the Triangle and explore the changing regulatory landscape in NC, meet scientists from the Superfund Research Program, visit the Ward Transformer Superfund site, learn about flame retardants in their furniture, and consider how recent droughts in the state may affect policy. From there, the journalists will board a bus and head for the coast, stopping to hear about industrial chemicals in agriculture, hog farming in North Carolina and related water quality concerns, and migrant farmworkers. Days three and four of the expedition will be spent on the Outer Banks, where experts will discuss oyster reef restoration, fisheries, coastal water quality, wetlands restoration, and hurricanes’ impact on the coastline and the people who live there.
Follow along on Twitter and Facebook using #ijnr_carolina next week!
