Tides Foundation Honors Journalists With 2004 JBL Awards for Excellence in Public Advocacy

Tides Foundation Honors Journalists With 2004 JBL Awards for Excellence in Public Advocacy

This Year's Awards Celebrate Excellence in Environmental Journalism

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Tides Foundation today announces the recipients of its annual JBL Awards for Excellence in Public Advocacy, this year recognizing journalists who have positively impacted the public perception of environmental issues and impacted policymaking in the U.S.

This year, the JBL Awards recognize the important work of Grist Magazine, an online environmental magazine, by honoring its founder and editor, Chip Giller, and one of its contributing writers, Amanda Griscom Little. The Awards also honor Colin Woodard, a freelance environmental journalist.

Tides Foundation issues the JBL Awards each year to celebrate the commitment to social justice of the late Jane Bagley Lehman, a founder of Tides Foundation in 1976, and Chair of the Board until her death in 1988. An unconventional philanthropist, Ms. Lehman was most intrigued by the approaches and strategies of activists and organizers and their willingness to challenge traditional assumptions. She also cared deeply that the results of these efforts be translated into the broader area of public policy. The awards highlight a different issue area each year.

"This year's recipients continue the legacy of Jane Bagley Lehman through their lasting contributions to public awareness and the understanding of environmental issues," said Idelisse Malave, Tides Foundation. "Grist was chosen for reaching out to the next generation of activists and environmentalists, with its readable, reliable and entertaining coverage of environmental issues. We recognize Colin Woodard, who specializes in thoughtful, firsthand environmental coverage from around the world and writes comprehensive, scientifically sound and objective pieces with a global perspective."

More About Grist Magazine

Five years after its launch, Grist reaches more than a quarter of a million people through its website and news emails and millions more through partnerships with media including MSNBC.com and Salon.com. With Grist, Chip Giller created an e-zine that speaks to a broad, growing audience that relies on the Internet for their main source of information. While half of Grist's readers say they are members of environmental groups, the other half are those not otherwise engaged in the environmental movement.

Grist often pairs its new stories with opportunities for readers to take action. An example is Grist's first-to-the-punch coverage on efforts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to dilute the meaning of the national "organic" label. This spring, Grist was the first to report on a USDA plan that would have severely weakened the standards. One day after the story appeared, Grist partners, Working Assets and RedJellyfish.com, cited the story and began circulating electronic action alerts to hundreds of thousands of people. The USDA was beset with calls and emails expressing disapproval of the plan, and less than two weeks after the Grist story ran, the USDA bowed to public pressure and withdrew its proposal.

Grist writer Amanda Griscom Little writes a twice-weekly Muckraker column that Salon.com picked up for weekly syndication to its 3 million readers. For nearly two years, Griscom Little has tracked the Bush Administration's environmental policies, Beltway shenanigans, and the people behind them. For the past year she has also been publishing a monthly interview in Grist with political leaders and environmental luminaries to bring a broad range of high- profile perspectives to the environmental discussion in an engaging, accessible way that will motivate mainstream audiences. Interviewees have included John Kerry, Howard Dean, Robert Redford, Bobby Kennedy Jr., Jim Jeffords, Joe Lieberman, John Mackey (CEO of Whole Foods), as well as U.S. Department of Interior officials Lynn Scarlett and Craig Manson. Recently picked up by MSNBC.com for syndication, her interviews will now reach 10 million readers per month.

More About Colin Woodard

One of the few journalists specializing in overseas reporting on the environment, Woodard produces thoughtful, firsthand coverage from places that are often difficult to travel to, like the collapsing ice shelves of the Antarctic, the low-lying atolls of Micronesia, the vanishing jungles of northern Guatemala, and the abandoned chemical plants of southern Albania. Most of Woodard's work focuses on issues of national or global consequence, like marine pollution, climate change, or the development of alternative energy technologies.

His articles have been cited widely in scientific and public policy papers, reports, books, and speeches, and reprinted in syndication by publications around the world. His book "Ocean's End," a critically acclaimed account of the crisis in the world's oceans, has been translated into Chinese and has influenced the recommendations of the Pew Oceans Commission and the United States Oceans Commission. His reports on new ocean management technologies helped prompt collaboration between federal, state, and provincial authorities in the U.S. and Canada. His pieces on the legacy of U.S. atomic testing in the Marshall Islands helped the people of Bikini Atoll receive compensation from Washington and may one day allow them to return to their contaminated island. His second book, "The Lobster Coast," has raised public awareness of the value of common property regimes in the management of natural resources like Maine lobster or Caribbean coral reefs. His reporting on Dutch and Danish innovations in recycling, wind power, and industrial ecology have been picked up by newspapers around the world, and in the publications of Worldwatch and the Earth Policy Institute. As a result of his writing, Colin has been invited to speak at numerous conferences around the country, including the inaugural meeting of the Pew Oceans Commission.

About Tides Foundation

Since 1976, Tides Foundation has partnered with donors and institutions by offering donor-advised funds, philanthropic advice and management services for progressive social change philanthropy. Tides is committed to strengthening community-based nonprofit organizations and the progressive movement through national and global philanthropy -- creating a positive impact on people's lives in ways that honor and promote human rights, economic justice and a healthy, sustainable environment.

Contacts:

Christopher Herrera Romi Neustadt
Director of Communications DDB Bass & Howes
Tides Foundation 206-326-5115
415-561-6355 206-947-5792
cherrera@tides.orgromi.neustadt@bh.ddb.com

This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com/.


Source: Tides Foundation

CONTACT: Christopher Herrera, Director of Communications, Tides
Foundation, +1-415-561-6355, cherrera@tides.org; or Romi Neustadt, DDB Bass &
Howes, +1-206-326-5115, +1-206-947-5792, romi.neustadt@bh.ddb.com


-------
Profile: intent