Editing David Helvarg (section)

===Journalism===
While still a student, Helvarg traveled to [[Northern Ireland]] in 1973.<ref name="Helvarg">David Helvarg. "Women Increasingly Active in Irish Struggle." ''Liberation News Service'', April 1973.</ref> The civil warfare known as "[[The Troubles]]" was at a height, and Helvarg submitted reports on the conflict to the [[Liberation News Service]].<ref name="Helvarg"/><ref>David Helvarg. "Northern Ireland at Easter: Temperatures Rising." ''Liberation News Service'', April 1973.</ref><ref>David Helvarg. "British Undercover Squad Tied to Sectarian Murders." —  ''Liberation News Service'', May 1973.</ref><ref>David Helvarg. "Armagh, Ireland &mdash; A Town Divided." ''Liberation News Service'', May 1973.</ref> Helvarg focused on the role of women in the conflict,<ref name="Helvarg"/> and highlighted allegations that agents of the British government had participated in sectarian murders.<ref>David Helvarg. "British Undercover Squad Tied to Sectarian Murders." ''Liberation News Service'', May 1973.</ref> After graduating from college, he moved to [[San Diego]] to work as a freelance journalist. He published "Ireland Diary; A Day in the Life" in the underground publication ''San Diego Door'',<ref>David Helvarg. "Ireland Diary; A Day in the Life." ''San Diego Door'', August 1974.</ref> and wrote for the weekly newspaper ''San Diego Newsline''.<ref>David Helvarg. "Mining the Sea — The Race Begins." ''San Diego Newsline'', Oct. 26, 1977. and subsequent issues.</ref>

From 1979 to 1983, Helvarg covered the U.S. role in [[Central America]]n conflicts, initially as a [[broadcast journalism|radio reporter]] for The [[Associated Press]] and [[Pacifica Radio]] in [[Nicaragua]] and [[El Salvador]].<ref name="Hamilton1"/>  His exclusive reports included combat coverage of the first town to fall to [[Sandinista]] rebels,<ref>David Helvarg. "On a mission with the Sandinistas." — Associated Press, June 19, 1979.</ref> the first delivery of U.S. gunships to El Salvador, the first visit to [[Contras|Contra]] camps in [[Honduras]], and the last interview with [[Ita Ford|Sister Ita Ford]] before her murder by the Salvadoran military. He was arrested by the Salvadoran army and deported from El Salvador in 1983 while reporting on a massacre of civilians.<ref>David Helvarg. "El Salvador:  A retrospective." ''San Diego Newsline'', June 8, 1983.</ref>

After returning to California, he qualified as a private investigator,<ref name="Hamilton1"/> and resumed freelance writing. He wrote reports on underwater technology, articles about [[John Hoagland]] after conducting the photographer's last interview, and an interview with [[Jonas Salk]]. Helvarg became increasingly involved in television production, although he continued his freelance career. Throughout the late 1980s, his television topics were dominated by [[AIDS]] education, particularly for the [[Hispanic]] community.<!---See Television and video work--->

In the early 1990s, he began to research the conflict between the US [[free-market environmentalism|free-market environmentalist]] group [[Wise Use]] and the [[Green politics|green movement]], which was eventually published as ''The War against the Greens'' in 1994. The Wise Use movement <!--these allegations are published on the Wise Use web-site <www.cdfe.org/wiseuse.htm>; it is not simply Arnold's personal opinion -->alleged that the US environmentalist group [[Sierra Club]] commissioned Helvarg to write the book as an anti-Wise Use tirade and that his sponsors also sponsored a road show to tie Wise Use to an alleged far-right terrorist network. The same article described him as "a private investigator" without mentioning his role as a journalist.<ref>Ron Arnold. 'Overcoming Ideology' in Philip D. Brick and R. McGreggor Cawley. A ''Wolf in the Garden: The Land Rights Movement and the New Environmental Debate'' (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996){{ISBN|0-8476-8185-8}}</ref>

A visit to Antarctica in 1999 became material for several articles and books, and a daily log was published in ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'', the online news magazine. His professional exposure to green activism and his ocean sports activities intersected in marine conservation, which became his focus. While researching his second book ''Blue Frontier—Saving America's Living Seas'' (2001), Helvarg concluded that marine conservation needed its own focal point for activism in the United States, so he moved to [[Washington, D.C.]], and founded a lobbying organization: the [[Blue Frontier Campaign]]. He also became a member of the board of Reef Relief, a more specific marine conservation [[advocacy group]], about which he had made a television documentary in 1994.

Helvarg attracted attention in early 2005 for a newspaper article in which he addressed comments made by conservative Christians (particularly [[James Dobson]] of the ''[[Focus on the Family]]'') regarding perceived [[homosexual]] tendencies of [[SpongeBob SquarePants]] due to an explanation of the sexual biology of ocean life (''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' January 26, 2005). In response to suggestions by Dobson and others that the ''[[We Are Family Foundation]]'' was exploiting popular animated characters, including SpongeBob, to promote the acceptance of homosexuality among young people, Helvarg described the "immorality" in the oceans. <!---LA Times, January 26, 2005|Helvarg20050126--->