New York Times science and environment reporter Andrew Revkin is “switching gears for the second half of my professional life.” Revkin wrote in the Times that he’s not abandoning journalism — “I’ll be continuing to blog, write and work with video. And I’ll certainly keep contributing to this remarkable newspaper…” — but is rather taking on new challenges, as senior fellow for environmental understanding at the Academy for Applied Environmental
Studies within Pace University.

His focus, he wrote, will “be education and a broader exploration of new ways to make information work…” He mentions the “untapped potential to use the Web;” calls bloggingan unavoidable responsibility of communicators;” plans for a role in interactive games; and says that in a world of shrinking specialized journalism his goal is to “help make scientists and scientific institutions into better, more committed, more creative communicators.”

It’s exciting and inspiring stuff — and maybe Revkin has the background to pull it off. Reading about his plans brought to mind the hopeful note on which former J-Source editor Ivor Shapiro left the post, with an editorial about how some glasses are half full during these trying times of change. Revkin doesn’t think the sky is falling. Instead, he’s crafting his own airship to explore it.