It's 2024. Why Do You Read The Xylom?
Dear Reader,
We're back after a newsletter hiatus in January!
This past month, I was reporting along the Texas Coastal Bend for my J-school thesis. My photo feature centers on Ingleside on the Bay, population 614: The town now finds two-thirds of all U.S. crude oil exports (around 2.5 million barrels per day!) passing through its vicinity, despite not having a single paid firefighter or an air quality monitor. I'm looking at the harm inflicted on the community, how policy and structural failures have enabled this, and how these residents aim to fight back with a multiracial, crosstown coaltion. While details are nowhere finalized yet, I hope a version of this story would be published here at The Xylom.
Why am I doing this reporting?
Because not only this story has completely slipped through the cracks of legacy media, it has strong local, statewide, national, and even international(!) implications for the clean energy transition and environmental justice. And considering the accolades we have been racking up, more and more people, are recognizing and counting on the impact we are making.
And so, flipping the question I asked myself back to you, we want to hear from you as The Xylom thinks about what’s working and what more we can do for our community. Your input will help us continue to grow science with words.
The Xylom Audience Survey
Every response is important to us here at The Xylom and as a thank you we will randomly select five responses to get a $50 gift card.
Please take a few minutes to take the survey — I’m looking forward to reading your responses!
Yours sincerely,
Alex Ip, Editor-in-Chief, The Xylom
TEN-ISH WORD STORIES, SUBMITTED BY OUR READERS
- Bigger bird species are disappearing from “logged” forests in India or areas where timber extraction has been high, finds a recent study based in the Himalayas.
— Pragathi Ravi, Independent Journalist
- Walking through the history of female anatomy makes me want a better future for women's health.
— Ellie Rose Mattoon, Meg Walsh Fellow, Johns Hopkins University
TODAY IN THINGS YOU MUST READ
FAMILY NEWS!
- It's official: we're a Silver Winner in News & Journalism, Sustainability, Environment, & Climate in The 3rd Annual Anthem Awards! Some other Silver Winners in our category include The National Geographic Society, Climate Central, and the World Wildlife Fund, so we're punching way above our weight!
- Thank you Sabrina Imbler for the shoutout on the SciFri podcast!
And there are some other exciting models in science journalism right now... I also think about The Xylom... these models are popping up everywhere as people understand there needs to be another way to tell science journalism stories.
- Jennifer Clare Ball was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about how shared Spotify accounts are "accidentally — or intentionally — interrupting each other’s listening and throwing off the algorithms that recommend songs and form custom playlists."
- Congrats to Claudia López-Lloreda, who was selected as one of The Open Notebook's Early-career Fellow!
A SOUTHERN FLAIR
- In east central Georgia, a new refinery aims to convert millions of gallons of ethanol into sustainable jet fuel. They are getting the attention of major philantrophic donors and U.S. officials. More on Canary Media:
- On January 25th, Alabama excuted Kenneth Smith with nitrogen gas, the first time this method has been carried out anywhere in the world. The Marshall Project looked at the science behind the method, what could go wrong (very), and where physicians plays a role in all of this.
- In the Lowcountry, the Post and Courier reports that some endangered northern long-eared bats avoiding the deadly white-nose syndrome have learned to roost in trees, pitting them against landowners and lawmakers eager to undermine the Endangered Species Act.
- From Angola's Louisiana State Penitentiary, Associated Press reporters traced how millions of dollars worth of products made from prison labor — under exploitative conditions — are flowing into the supply chain of hundreds of popular food brands.
- Not one, but two climate solutions features from the Washington Post: one focused on how the Battleship North Carolina site in Wilmington, N.C. is adapting to sea level rise, the other on rebounding oyster numbers in Chesapeake Bay.
WHAT ELSE WE'RE READING
- What our Editor-in-Chief Alex Ip calls "the first must-read of 2024": For Intelligencer, editor Tom Scocca pens a haunting essay of his dramatic health and professional decline due to a mysterious condition.
- Two stories about tropical fruits with vastly different implications: Sierra Magazine looks at the dark side of Costa Rica's banana industry addiction with chemical pesticides; you should also listen to NPR's reporting about China's alleged theft of the Taiwanese mango pineapple cultivar underscores the fraught political tensions between the two nations.
- The Narwhal has a fascinating multimedia anthology on the rise, fall, and revival of electric transit in Winnipieg, Canada.
THE XYLOM'S RECENT STORIES
“Cheetahs Arriving by Plane Does Not Make It a Restoration Project”
- Yet another death has cast doubt on the future of India's ambitious and controversial cheetah reintroduction program. Pragathi Ravi looks into where flaws in the underlying science and transparency issues have doomed the initiative from the start.
Perspective: Losing My Pink
- Emma Schmitt finds inspiration from her peers in the animal world as she begins raising her own child.
Another Day at the Courts with Kenya's Ogiek Tribe
- The Indigenous Ogiek tribe in Southwest Kenya has successfully fought a decade-long legal battle to stop the Kenyan government from illegally evicting them from the Mau Forest and flipping the land for an alleged carbon credit trading scheme. Yet, the Kenyan Forest Service has ignored rulings, going as far as setting fire to Ogiek huts this past November. The Ogiek are appearing in front of the courts again. Will this time be any different? Check out this photo feature by Kang-Chun Cheng.
Some Cool Charts We Made in 2023
- In 2023, The Xylom’s visual journalist team (of one) covered everything from "Cop City" to gun violence in the rural South, from "maladaptive" climate infrastructure in India to flooding in Nigeria. Check out some of the most interesting — and weird and colorful and complicated — charts we made in the last 12 months.
“If Your Cycle is Normal, Why Play with It?”
- Although hormone therapy has helped menstruators regulate their periods and avoid pregnancies when used as intended, women in India have been coerced to take these pills to "purify" themselves to attend religious functions, Sneha Khedkar writes.
“We Are Suffering”: Despite Steps Taken, Gas Flaring Still Threatens Livelihoods in Niger Delta
- Nigeria has reduced its gas flaring by a third since 2019. But that is a function of reduced oil production levels, not of any regulatory success. Ekpali Saint speaks to Niger Delta residents who are bearing the brunt of environmental health impacts:(NOW AVAILABLE IN ITALIAN)