SEJ's 34th Annual Conference • #SEJ2025 | Arizona | April 23-26 • Contact
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Coverage

SEJ’s 34th annual conference took place April 23-26, 2025, hosted by Arizona State University in Tempe. Below, you’ll find multimedia coverage provided by SEJ, ASU, our multischool Student Newsroom, volunteers and conference attendees.

NOTE: This page is a work-in-progress and will be for quite some time!

Most sessions were audio-recorded and will be posted below as they become available.

Additional coverage:

It’s critically important to SEJ to gather evidence on the impact of our work. So we’re tracking stories inspired by or informed by our conference in Arizona. The stories don’t have to be about Tempe, Phoenix or Arizona; they can be based on sources or ideas you got from being at the conference. Please help us to keep SEJ strong and share links, photos, copies of reporting generated or informed by this conference. Send your story links to Cindy MacDonald, SEJ’s Web content manager. It’s never too late. Please send yours! Moderators, speakers, tour leaders: We also welcome resources, tipsheets, etc., from sessions or tours that you wish to share.

Panel Moderators, Tour Leaders and Speakers: Translate your hard work for #SEJ2025 into a short report and reach thousands through the SEJournal Online! Fill out this brief form and we’ll be in touch to explain how.

Page Menu

Wednesday, April 23
Thursday, April 24
Friday, April 25
Saturday, April 26
Miscellaneous conference coverage (includes multi-session stories)

Wednesday, April 23

Workshop 1. Reporting on Ag & Water: Scarcity and Solutions Amid Changing Times

Thursday, April 24

All-Day Tour. From the Waste to Wildlife: Environmental Management in the Borderlands

All-Day Tour. Wolves, Prairie Dogs and Wildlife Crossings: Biodiversity Conservation and Wildlife Coexistence

All-Day Tour. Just Transition: Native Interests and Controversies on Sacred Lands

All-Day Tour. Decarbonizing Arizona With Solar and Nuclear: Meeting Challenges of Growing Energy Demand

All-Day Tour. Forest, Fires and Water: The Risks of Wildfire in a Biodiverse Landscape

All-Day Tour. How Does Arizona Keep Taps Flowing in the Desert?

All-Day Tour. Urban and Exurban Development, Rising Heat and Water Shortages

All-Day Tour. Reinventing Desert Agriculture in Central Arizona

All-Day Tour. Phoenix From the Inside Out: Heat Stress and Housing Discrimination in the Valley of the Sun

All-Day Tour. Living and Curated Desert Collections: From Field Monitoring to Biorepository Resources

Friday, April 25

Opening Plenary. Lessons From the West, Good and Bad: Confronting the Climate Crisis in the Trump Era

Concurrent Sessions 1. Should We Mine the Ocean Floor?

Concurrent Sessions 1. Will Biden’s Billions Survive Trump’s Purge?

Concurrent Sessions 1. Meeting Communities Where They Are in Environmental Journalism

Mini-Tour. The Abundance of Food in the Desert

Concurrent Sessions 2. Walling Off Wildlife

Concurrent Sessions 2. Artificial Intelligence and Environmental Journalism: We’ve Got This! Let’s Do Some Good With AI

Concurrent Sessions 2. When There Is No Data Available: How To Report Environmental Stories on Latinx Communities?

Concurrent Sessions 2. How Water Will Decide the Fate of Mining and Energy Development in the West

Concurrent Sessions 2. Is Phoenix Sustainable?

Concurrent Sessions 2. Climate Visual Storytelling on Tribal Lands

Concurrent Sessions 2. How To Make Biodiversity Stories Matter to Your Audiences

Lunch Plenary. Lessons From Investigative Journalism: Reporting Without Access

Concurrent Sessions 3. Managing Forests in an Age of Runaway Fire, A/K/A “The Pyrocene”

Concurrent Sessions 3. The Mining Conundrum

Concurrent Sessions 3. 100 Days In: Trump’s Second Term and Transportation Electrification

Concurrent Sessions 3. How To Cover Scientific Controversies — Amid Declining Trust in Science

Concurrent Sessions 3. Disaster Reporting During a Climate Crisis: Strategies and Solutions for Covering Extreme Weather Events

Concurrent Sessions 3. The Lightest Gas, The Heaviest Questions: Hydrogen Development on Navajo Lands

Concurrent Sessions 4. On Your Doorstep: Covering and Attributing Climate Impacts in Your Community

Concurrent Sessions 4. Oak Flat: When the Just Transition Goes Haywire

Concurrent Sessions 4. Climate Disinformation in Focus: What Journalists Need To Know About UN’s Global Initiative for Information Integrity

Concurrent Sessions 4. How To Be a Journalist Who CARES: Navigating Emotions and Mental Health in Climate Journalism

Concurrent Sessions 4. Engaging Readers on Climate in an Age of Distraction

Concurrent Sessions 4. Shifting Threats: How Climate Change is Reshaping Infectious Disease Spread on a Global and Local Level

Sponsored Beat Dinner. The Trump Administration’s Chaotic Start on Public Lands

Saturday, April 26

Concurrent Sessions 5. Clean Energy Projects in the West: Who Benefits?

Concurrent Sessions 5. Road to COP30: Forests and Climate From the Amazon to Arizona

Concurrent Sessions 5. Reporting the Overlooked Link: Reproductive Health, Justice and the Climate Crisis

Concurrent Sessions 5. Beyond Climate Anxiety: Alternative Frameworks for Reporting on Uncertain Climate Futures

Concurrent Sessions 5. How (and How Not) To Cover Extreme Heat: Scientifically, Ethically and Visually

Concurrent Sessions 5. Plastics, Wildfires and Threats to Health, Especially Children’s Brains: New Evidence and Impending Court and State Efforts

Concurrent Sessions 5. Covering Public Lands From the Ground Up

Concurrent Sessions 6. Beyond Worst-Case Scenarios: Building a Vibrant Subculture of Climate Adaptation

Concurrent Sessions 6. Protocols for Environmental Journalism Safety: Lessons From the Amazon

Concurrent Sessions 6. Just Transition in the Global South: Opportunities, Risks and Lessons From the North

Concurrent Sessions 6. Rethinking the Humble Weather Report

Mini-Workshop. Reimagining Environmental Journalism in a Perilous Era: A Makerspace for Dreamers and Problem-Solvers

Mini-Tour. Restoring Nature and Rehabilitating Wildlife in Arizona

Mini-Tour. Exploring VR in Journalism With Dreamscape Learn

Author Program. Stories That Shape Our World

Miscellaneous