The Grantham Prize for Environmental Journalism

Grantham Prize: Celebrating 5 years 2006 - 2010

2009 Grantham Prize Seminar

2009 Grantham Prize (Click to open)

The October 5th Grantham Prize Seminar on the State of Environmental Journalism featured presentations from the 2009 winners of the Grantham Prize and the Award of Special Merit recipients. The seminar concluded with an interview of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and the Atmosphere, and NOAA Administrator, Dr. Jane Lubchenco by ABC News Correspondent Bill Blakemore. The program has been archived and will be available soon on DVD.

Click here to view the archived webcast of the Grantham Prize Seminar.

Click Here to Pre-order the 2009 Grantham Prize Seminar DVD

2009 Grantham Prize Winners Cover Major Environmental Issues

$75,000 Prize Honors Top Environmental Reporting in the U.S. and Canada: Winning Story Investigates Toxic Air and America's Schools

Main Street in Follansbee, W. Va., is home to a tar plant, a steel plant and Follansbee Middle School.

Darlene Patterson walks granddaughter Deondra Scott, 4, near the Wyandotte Early Childhood Center in Baton Rouge, less than half a mile from an ExxonMobil refinery, background.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., questions how the Environmental Protection Agency handles health issues for schoolchildren during the confirmation hearing of Lisa Jackson.

Matt Becker shows his scar from exploratory surgery after doctors thought they saw another tumor. His medical team does not know what caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and his mother worries that chemicals from a nearby plastics plant are to blame.

Smokestack Effect (Click to open)

Blake Morrison and Brad Heath of USA Today will receive the $75,000 Grantham Prize for “The Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and America's Schools.” Morrison and Heath teamed with researchers from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland to identify and model the toxic exposures that children could experience at schools around the nation. Grantham Prize jurors noted that this series took "science-based journalism to a new level.”

Reporter Blake Morrison described the recognition as “simply extraordinary.” “To be chosen from among other groundbreaking works – all that have brought some of the most critical issues we face to the forefront – is the sort of honor that both humbles and fuels us,” Morrison added.