Murdoch uses words to fight coal

“We would often just sit on their porches, they would offer me cornbread and Coke, and we’d just talk for hours on end.”

For Sierra Murdoch ’09.5, this year’s undergraduate Environmental Journalism Fellow, this routine was the key to excellent reporting during her time in southwest Virginia this summer.
Murdoch is reporting on mountaintop removal mining — a process that involves blasting away the top of a mountain in order to reach the coal seams underneath — and how the longtime residents of the area are standing up against the degradation of their land.

Many of the people protesting this form of coal mining are former union coal miners who have “a long history of fighting against the injustices of coal,” said Murdoch.
During her time with these homegrown environmentalists, Murdoch was glad to witness that some progress was being made against this type of mining, especially when the Environmental Protection Agency denied permits to some potential mines after hearing the emotional testimony of some of these miners.

“It’s been a cool story to follow,” said Murdoch, seeing the direct link between their voices and political action. It’s been a lot of fun.”

The Environmental Journalism Fellowship began in 2007, with a group of 10 young journalists, including two Middlebury seniors. The program was funded by an anonymous gift of $1.5 million, which helps pay for the fellows’ stipend — $10,000 for graduates and $4,000 for Middlebury students — and the retreats that the fellows participate in at the beginning and close of the program each year.

This year’s batch of fellows reports on a diverse range of topics and comes from a diverse array of perspectives. They hail from as near as New Haven, Conn., and as far as Beijing, China. The attention-grabbing titles of the fellows’ projects show the breadth of the program’s reach — Nick Miroff of Arlington, Va., is researching the environmental legacy of the Cuban Revolution, and Christopher Weber of Chicago is writing about what should be done with factories abandoned in the collapse of the automotive industry.”

“The fellows have gone on to do astonishing things,” wrote Scholar-in-Residence Bill McKibben, who directs the program with Christopher Shaw, visiting lecturer in English and American Literature.

“[Some of them end up] publishing pieces in many of the foremost publications in the country, even though we are in a very tough environment for freelance journalism.”

The fellows meet for the first time at the Breadloaf School of English in the fall, where they are joined by a distinguished environmental journalist who they may probe with questions about their experience reporting on environmental issues.  This year’s visiting reporter was Ted Conover, a well-known writer of narrative nonfiction and frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine­, The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly­ and other popular magazines. Ross Gelbspan, Alan Weisman, William Finnegan and Rebecca Solnit offered their advice to the fellows in previous years of the program. Former Times reporter Keith Schneider will join the fellows at their last meeting in the spring.

“Myself being one of the least experienced at the table,” Murdoch said, “it was really interesting for me to hear pitches from already experienced journalists — people at the start of their career who have a sense of what creates a good story. I was in heaven spending an entire week just talking about writing and stories and environmentalism.”

The program culminates in a weeklong stay at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. The fellows will share their stories with each other and with McKibben and Shaw, who by then already will have begun gearing to pick next year’s fellows after the May 15 application deadline.

According to McKibben, they have to sort through 150 to 200 applications each year, a task both time-consuming and difficult for the pair.

“I hope that [the number of applications] doesn’t grow because it’s heartbreaking to sort through them,” wrote McKibben in an e-mail. “I have all kinds of new respect for the Middlebury Admissions Office!”

Shaw gave an informational session on Nov. 18 for upperclassmen interested in pursuing a career in environmental journalism, or who are at least eager to share an environmental story with the world. Each year, the fellowship invites one or two undergraduates to participate in the program, and Middlebury graduates are invited to apply as well. Emily Peterson, a former fellow who now works as an assistant for the program in Washington, D.C., had some advice for prospective applicants.

“I would encourage interested applicants to think deeply about how their academic, professional, or personal experience makes them uniquely qualified to report on their proposed story,” wrote Peterson in an e-mail. “It’s necessary to become an expert in your subject area, and then to communicate your story with a sense of passion and ease that will inspire even a lay person to take interest in your cause.”

Murdoch also strongly encourages anyone interested in the environment or journalism to apply for the program.

“This has been an incredible opportunity for me,” said Murdoch, “as someone who hasn’t had too many bylines yet, to go through the rigorous process from beginning to end of doing solid reporting and producing a well-written project, and hopefully having it published.”

Murdoch plans to go back to southwest Virginia during Thanksgiving break to do some more reporting, and she will spend February and March after her graduation finishing up her work and recording some oral histories from the veteran environmentalists.

“The stories are particularly powerful in the men’s own words,” said Murdoch, “since they have such rich accents.”

After she completes her story, Murdoch hopes to continue writing about the environment, and although the job market for journalists may be slim, she has no qualms about the reams of content still left to write.

“There are so many interesting stories that need to be told, are waiting to be told, about Appalachia,” said Murdoch,” and I would love to have the chance to tell them.”

Prior to winning this fellowship, Murdoch spent a semester working for Power Past Coal, a grassroots organization she helped found with 40 other grassroots activists who want to end our reliance on energy from burning coal. For her work with this organization, Murdoch was one of six recipients of the 2009 Brower Youth Award, for which she will receive a $3,000 cash prize.

“The project was really stressful,” said Murdoch. “So it was almost a relief to get the fellowship because I could spend my summer sitting on people’s porches and just listening and learning, and I didn’t have to organize.”