Reporters on the Job

from the October 31, 2007 edition

• Environmental Ethics Class: For reporter Eliza Barclay, the seeds of today's story about the nexus of Islam and better fishing practices in Tanzania were planted seven years ago. At the time, she was taking a class called "Environmental Philosophy and Ethics" at the University of California at Berkeley. "The class looked at the conservation messages found in sacred texts. At the time, there was little scholarship about conservation in Islam. Most of what we learned dealt with what the Bible and Torah had to say. Hindu and Buddhism also have clear messages," Eliza says.

So, when she got the opportunity to dig into the topic in Tanzania as a fellow with the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins University, she took it.

– David Clark Scott

World editor

Mexico's Roman Catholic church voiced its opposition to the spread of the US holiday, epitomized by the sale of plastic pumpkins in Mexico City. Alexandre Meneghini/AP More cultural snapshots

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