MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and the United States, the world’s great space powers, celebrated the eve of the first satellite launch 50 years ago with a pact to use Russian technology on NASA missions to seek water on the moon and Mars.

Perhaps through this potent partnership humanity can find clues how to better manage — and hold onto — this live-defining resource here at home.

Dr. Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute, weighs in on the importance of water and its crucial role for all living things

Nick Cain, communications guru at the Pacific Institute, shared the good news. Dr. Peter Gleick, our chairman, is now a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. It’s one of the “highest honors that can be awarded a scientist or engineer.”

MEXICO CITY - Water and the Media was a World Water Forum panel discussion this morning hosted by the Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the World Water Council. I was one of three panel members for the session that focused on the challenges of reporting on local and global water issues. Tim Cullen, former chief spokesman for the World Bank and current manager of the Asian Development Bank’s water awareness program, moderated the well-attended session. Most striking were comments from the audience about the lack of resources — even the lack of editors’ interest — in this critical global issue that touches everyone. From my perspective on the front lines, it’s the Big Story.

NEW YORK - Magic moments at conferences usually occur off-stage at these highly coordinated events of high talent and connectivity. I wasn’t disappointed.
As the cocktail party quieted down and Ted Turner and other guests segued to dinner and off-site discussion, I found Jim Kelly, Time’s managing editor, taking in the glorious view of Columbus Circle from the tiered floor of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He was warm, enthused and focused, a trait common of Time Magazine staffers. He invited me to join him, photographer Jim Nachtwey, Time’s photo director Michelle Stephenson and photo editor Mary Anne Golon for a moving tour of Nachtwey’s photographs shot for the Time cover story. Others joined us, including the president of Canon.
It was a reunion of sorts - I first met Jim Nachtwey when I was in college and photographing for the Day in the Life books and when I participated in editing sessions of his work at National Geographic. It was great, too, to spend time with Michelle and Mary Anne. I had been an intern, gads, 20 years ago, when Michelle was assistant director of photography and when Mary Anne was a section editor.
Jim’s walkthrough of his images drew tears and reminded us all — yet again and again — the power of the moment. One picture, etching itself upon our souls, was of the exact moment when a woman’s 7-year-old daughter took her last breath. The anguish, the horror, the tragedy of another preventable disease.

photo: Evan Agostini/Time

ASPEN (July 11-13, 2005) - This has been an intense few days of discussions marked by revelations and brainstorms about how the media can improve its coverage of long-term, slow-to-develop environmental issues such as climate change.
Notes are numerous. Quotes were powerful, such as this paraphrase from one Pulitzer-winning participant: Why do we have wait for politicians to define when we cover an issue? Why can’t we create our own events.
Here’s how the Aspen Idea magazine described the session (the monograph is available from the Aspen Institute):

Think Globally, Report Locally
The nature of fast-paced, deadline-driven journalism makes it difficult to cover complicated environmental issues, many of which are likely to have serious long-term public consequences. In July the Program on Energy, the Environment, and the Economy; the Communications and Society Program; and Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions worked together in Aspen on a conference that considered news coverage of global climate change. … it included top national and regional editors, news directors, and reporters, plus a handful of environmentalists, industry reps, journalism teachers, and a climate scientist. The conference closed with recommendations encouraging newsroom leaders and managers to rethink their coverage of the environment and to work to make it as informative, engaging and locally relevant as possible.

Let’s hope we’re successful.

Tim Profeta, director, Duke University Nicholas School for Environmental Policy Solutions, speaks at the Aspen Institute “Journalism and the Environment” session.
photo: J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue