India: Toxic Tanneries
India is the world's second largest producer of leather and leather goods—the toxic working conditions and environmental effects are beyond measure.
India is the world's second largest producer of leather and leather goods—the toxic working conditions and environmental effects are beyond measure.
Podcast with former New York Times science editor David Corcoran discusses a series on the global leather tanning and textile industries with grantees Larry and Debbie Price.
The fabric industry in Catawba County, North Carolina, was decimated by offshoring. Now it’s making a high-tech comeback, albeit with fewer employees.
The rise of fabric and textile manufacturing brought jobs to Indonesia’s West Java province. It also brought abject pollution to the Citarum River.
The lucrative and polluting leather industry fled Gloversville, New York, for foreign shores when regulations set in, but its echoes are everywhere.
Leather processing is big business in Bangladesh, India, and other parts of the developing world, where regulations are lax and poisons run freely.
The deep sea is dark, cold and mysterious and only 95 percent of the ocean has been explored. Yet, the deep sea is already a target for mineral mining that will destroy everything in its wake.
Mineral mining prospects in the deep sea are piquing the world's interests as countries are staking claims in the sea bed. But what will the effects of deep sea mining be?
Will corporate interests and our modern way of life damage the people and nature on Pacific Islands? What effects will mining for metals off the coast of Papua New Guinea and other countries have?
In the tiny Indian village of Ganshadih, women and young girls dodge underground fire to scavenge meager bits of coal from India's largest open-pit mine.
After 80 years of service, the Mackenzie River barges succumb to changing economics and climate.
They can see the global culture via satellite television, but cannot touch it, except to purchase the veneer on Amazon.
A recent theatrical production brought a Pulitzer Center-sponsored article from the pages of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to the stage in New York City as a part of Jane Catherine Shaw's Thirst: Memory of Water. Drawing on sources ranging from Leonardo's Treatise on Water to first person accounts, the show brought together disparate voices to address the practical and spiritual aspects of one of life's essentials—water.
The 2nd Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism 2010 will be the premiere for the »Lumix Multimedia Award« including prize money of 5,000 euros for the best journalistic multimedia production.
170 photographers from 41 countries have applied for this award which will be given in addition to the FreeLens Award. The chance to create another narrative layer beyond the photographs seems to be used by more and more photographers.
For many of us, it's hard to envision a time when water will not be readily available. From drinking to cleaning, water is a constant and often underappreciated presence in our lives. But for 884 million people clean water is a precious commodity. And if we continue to deplete our clean water sources, it will inevitably affect us all.
"Almost a billion people on the planet don't have access to clean drinking water. That's one in eight of us."
That's the message charity: water, a nonprofit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations, wants you to hear.
View "The story of charity: water," a finalist in the 4th annual YouTube's DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards above.
The children of the Rhema Grace orphanage in Tiko Cameroon have never heard of World Water Day, but they're no strangers to understanding what happens when they're isn't enough of it.
Water for Rhema Grace
By Winn Mete
Specialists from across sectors gathered at the National Geographic Society on World Water Day, Monday, March 22, to share information on an issue seemingly so simple we often take it for granted.
But you don't have to be an expert to know about water.
Just ask the man who sold me my coffee today. "Well, that's obvious," he said of the event, "it doesn't matter what else people have; without water, they're going to go after each other to get it."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged Monday to put water issues on the "front burner" of U.S. foreign policy. She told an audience of specialists and water advocates gathered at the National Geographic Society that solving the global challenge of safe water and sanitation was integral to every other U.S. interest.
Unsafe water and poor sanitation claim 4,500 lives day. What should we do about it?
That’s the question we posed in our Global Issues/Citizen Voices essay contest with helium.com, the popular writers’ site. The answers have been streaming in
Peter Sawyer, Pulitzer Center
The Obama Administration has added water to its list of diplomatic priorities. In a conference call Thursday morning, Under Secretary of State Maria Otero identified water as a central U.S. foreign policy concern, touching everything from health and economic development to global security. Otero discussed water issues on the eve of World Water Day next Monday, in a year when activists are working harder than ever to engage the public and policy-makers.
Monday, March 22 marks World Water Day. Environmental experts, policymakers, and even those of us who typically leave the tap running while brushing our teeth will pause to join the conversation about the world's most vital resource and its role in our lives.
Peter Sawyer, Pulitzer Center
Image from Steve Sapienza and Glenn Baker's Easy Like Water project on floating schools in Bangladesh
From the women who spend hours daily fetching water to political battles over international rivers to melting icepack and rising sea levels, the water issue affects us all, and we all contribute to it.
In January 2010, Pulitzer-sponsored journalists Jennifer Redfearn, William Wheeler and Anna-Katarina Gravgaard visited more than fifteen middle and high schools and three universities in the St. Louis area. They spoke about their experiences reporting on the issues surrounding climate change in the Carteret Islands and South Asia, respectively. Their discussions with the students ranged from the environmental, social, and political implications of climate change, to the technical and educational sides of a career in journalism, to news literacy and the changing media landscape.