The informational graphics in the “Big Oil + Bad Air” investigative series by InsideClimate News in conjunction with the Center for Public Integrity have been awarded a Sigma Delta Chi award by the Society of Professional Journalists.
The graphics, by ICN’s Paul Horn and reporter Lisa Song, detail the process of fracking the Eagle Ford Shale in south Texas and how its toxic air emissions have created a public health threat in the region. The investigation showed how little Texas officials knew about the pollution and its impact on the people of the region and how the state government remains intent on keeping regulations to a minimum despite those impacts. The award was given for the main story in the series, “Fracking Boom Spews Toxic Air Emissions on Texas Residents.“
The series was the result of an eight-month investigation by a team of ICN reporters along with reporters from CPI. The Weather Channel contributed an online documentary. The collaboration has been honored with several awards, including the National Press Foundation’s Stokes Award, an EPPY award from Editor & Publisher, a health care reporting award and was a finalist in the Investigative Reporters & Editors Awards.
The award-winning graphics from “Fracking Boom Spews Toxic Air Emissions on Texas Residents,” click images to enlarge:
About This Story
Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.
That’s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can’t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We’ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.
Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.
Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don’t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places?
Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.
Thank you,
