Freelance journalist Sara Shipley Hiles specializes in stories that illuminate the relationship between people and the environment. She also covers science, health, and other issues. In her 14 years as a reporter and writer, she has traveled from Louisiana's chemical corridor to the Douglas fir forests of the Northwest and the mining towns of Peru.
It's a long way from the thin air of an impoverished mountain village outside Lima, Peru, to the tony atmosphere of the Hamptons. But a group of religious leaders from Peru recently traveled to New York to tell billionaire industrialist Ira L. Rennert that even if he can sleep at night, comfortably ensconced in his 110,000-square-foot estate in Sagaponack, God is watching. 
Published on: 2007-06-26 - Read full story..
Published on: 2007-01-01 - Read full story..
In the November/December 2006 issue of Mother Jones, Sara Shipley Hiles and Marina Walker Guevara tell the story of two cities, some 3,000 miles apart, that are intimately linked by one company and one mineral unearthed from the ground. Both La Oroya, Peru and Herculaneum, Mo., are home to lead smelters operated by the Doe Run Co., one of the largest lead producers in the world. The St. Louis-based firm expanded its dirty operations abroad at a time when it was facing increasing scrutiny at home, milking money from its Peruvian operation while claiming it couldn't afford to finish its mandatory cleanup plan there. Meanwhile, 99 percent of La Oroya's children are lead-poisoned - a price some families think they have to pay to put food on the table.
Click here to view photos from La Oroya and Herculaneum
Published on: 2006-10-26 - Read full story..