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On Wednesday, March 23, 2016, Pulitzer Center grantees Ian James of The Desert Sun and Steve Elfers of USA Today speak about their five-part series "Pumped Dry: The Global Crisis of Vanishing Groundwater" at Campus Consortium partner American University .
The main event is part of a two-day campus visit that includes conversations in classes about their reporting and their careers. As part of their Pulitzer Center-supported series, James and Elfers worked together to examine the depletion of groundwater aquifers across the world. The reporting took them from cornfields in Kansas and vineyards in California to rice paddies in India, orange groves in Morocco and asparagus farms in Peru. They visited four continents to examine the crisis and find out how communities were trying to sustain their aquifers, or how they were dealing when their taps were on the verge of running dry.
The visit coincides closely with World Water Day on Tuesday, March 22. The discussion of water issues also has a lighter side at American University on March 22, when the contest winner for the EcoComedy Video Competition is announced. The 2016 contest theme is Clean Water and contestants are required to submit a short, humorous video that has a message of environmental conservation.
The award presentation will be made as part of the Student Short Environmental Film Festival, one of several DC Environmental Film Festival events hosted at American University in March. The short documentary created by James and Elfers as part of their Pulitzer Center-supported project also is part of the Environmental Film Festival and screens on Thursday, March 24 at the Carnegie Institution for Science.
Conversation with Journalists Ian James and Steve Elfers
Wednesday, March 23
5:30 PM
American University
Ward Circle Building, Auditorium Room #2
Washington, DC 20016