Students and faculty at SUNY Old Westbury are sure to recognize the name Karl Grossman. That is because Professor Grossman is a well-known and well-respected professor at SUNY Old Westbury, teaching courses like Investigative Reporting and Environmental Journalism.
However, Professor Grossman is also known on campus and beyond for his investigative journalistic work outside of Old Westbury as well. Having been an investigative journalist for decades, he has worked to expose some of the more glaring issues in our society, particularly those that have been plaguing our environment.
For thirty years, he has hosted a TV program called Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman. This show delves into problems like environmental racism, climate change, and what he himself referred to as “biological warfare,” an issue that Professor Grossman has said to have been investigating since he was an investigative reporter for the Long Island Press in 1971.
Along with his show, Professor Grossman has also written several books, including the recently-released Cold War Long Island, which is connected to some of his previous work, especially when it comes to exposing the act of “biological warfare.”
“On the nationally-aired TV program I have hosted for 30 years, Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman, I have put a focus on the plight of the people of the Marshall Islands who were exposed to large amounts of radioactivity as a result of more than 60 detonations of atomic and hydrogen bombs off their shores,” Professor Grossman said, “and the charge that doctors and other personnel from Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, who were supposed to monitor their health situation, were terribly lax.”
In the book, he describes how Long Island, during the Cold War era, became a popular spot for the government to establish laboratories, including some that dealt in studying radiation effects on humans and even conducted research on biological warfare to be used to destroy cattle and other livestock in the Soviet Union. This connects to Grossman’s documentary on WVVH-TV on Long Island back on Nov. 6, 2010, in which he reveals that there are now sealed-off bunkers on Long Island, including one in Rocky Point, which once contained nuclear-tipped missiles intended to have their nuclear warheads detonate amid formations of Soviet bombers heading to New York City.
As for future work, Professor Grossman has made it clear that he will continue to try to expose some of these “horror stories” in more ways than one. “So, these [problems] and other issues are still with us,” Grossman says. “I have plans for much journalism ahead including many more TV programs in my Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman series which is aired throughout the United States, lots of internet journalism…and more books.”
