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The 17th annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) September 4-9 at Stanford University in California attracted more than 900 attendees, a new record for SEJ annual conferences.

Even allowing some pretty lenient counting protocols, the conference clearly was an important success for SEJ and for environmental journalism generally, particularly given the continuing bearish economic outlook for most mainstream media. As the group was meeting on the sprawling campus, in fact, newspapers were reporting continuing quarterly losses in advertising readers ... and readers. SEJ reported that as of July 31, 2007, its membership numbers for the first time includes more freelancers than newspaper employees ... only by one, but, again, a sign of the times and a trend very likely to continue.

For the indefatigable reporters and other attendees with the stomach and backbone for it, the SEJ conference as usual provided a rich menu of plenaries, concurrent sessions, field trips, "network lunches," dinner get-togethers, and interest group-supported receptions that kept many going from 7:30 in the morning to after 10 p.m.

An informal sampling of random attendees indicated a high level of satisfaction with the conference experience overall.

For those journalists and others interested in the growing journalistic focus on and public concern over climate change, the conference agenda could hardly have provided more sessions. Climate "skeptics" doubtless will feel their perspectives were in no way adequately represented, and few would argue that they in fact were invited to participate in most of the science-based sessions.

On the other hand, SEJ conference planners did succeed in attracting to the venue a wide range of highly respected climate science experts, whose views by and large are consistent with the headline findings of groups such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the National Academy of Sciences, and organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the American Meteorological Society (AMS).

A Saturday evening "dinner and the movies" plenary perhaps strayed a bit beyond that firm scientific underpinning with a showing and panel discussion on actor Leonardo Dicaprio's just-out film "The 11th Hour." Some of the actual journalists in the audience opined that the film was a tad "preachy" and that it also perhaps ran a bit too long. They drew the distinction, properly so, that it in fact was a film ... and not journalism.

As for breaking new ground, SEJ members and professional staff took pride in the meeting's having attracted nearly 20 high-level and top-notch news executives from news organizations including The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Detroit Free Press, The Louisville Courier-Journal, Des Moines Register, Seattle Times, Tacoma News Tribune, Wilmington, De., News-Journal, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, ABC News, and other leading news organizations.

That full-day by-invitation forum focusing on coverage of climate change also involved more than a half-dozen leading climate scientists and researchers, including such world-renowned experts as climate expert Stephen H. Schneider of Stanford, glaciologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University, and energy efficiency proponent Amory Loving of the Rocky Mountain Institute. Details on and impressions about the news executives forum are expected to be reported soon on the SEJ website and in its SEJournal members newsletter.