Earth Journalism
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June 22, 2012 03:15 PM
Rio+20 side events become the main event
Does the summit deserve the scorn and indifference it has received from the media?
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Tragedy and farce. Those are the two general impressions conveyed by much of the world’s media regarding the global negotiations taking place here this week, which harken back to the historical treaty talks held 20 years ago in the same city.
Journalists covering the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, knew something was odd when...
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June 7, 2012 06:50 AM
The Seattle Times sinks a local polluter
Investigating the sketchy background of a capsized ship's owner
Most business investigations focus on corporations and investors. And for good reason: They're the ones with the money and the power.
But sometimes a small business owner can have an outsized impact too. Here in Seattle three weeks ago, a boat moored off Whidbey Island caught fire and sank, spilling thousands of gallons of fuel, shutting down shellfish harvesting in...
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December 14, 2011 02:45 PM
Inside COP17
Why UN climate summits like the one in Durban are challenging, but worth covering
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA—It’s not easy to be a climate reporter. You have to understand the science of climate change, as well as the politics and the economics. You need to cover energy policy, forest issues, agriculture, oceans, and industry. You have to follow both global and local politics. You need to be able to communicate with both scientists and laymen....
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November 11, 2011 12:03 PM
Puzzling Over the Flood
James Fahn pieces together the Thai disaster from international and local news
In the movie The Paper, a group of editors for a New York tabloid are trying to decide how prominently to print the story of a terrible but distant plane crash when one of them asks if any New Yorkers died. It’s a morbid question that seems in poor taste, but it also reveals just how much of a local...
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October 13, 2011 12:30 PM
Hooking the Reader
Dublin meeting highlights reporting challenges related to oceans, seafood
Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, as the old saying goes. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat the rest of his life. But that presumes there remain plenty of fish in the sea and journalists to help monitor them.
Unfortunately, both are increasingly risky assumptions, as news outlets have been hammered by cutbacks...
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September 13, 2011 03:40 PM
Starving for Coverage
Unlike the 1980s, journalists pay little attention to famine ravaging the Horn of Africa
What a difference a generation makes. Back in 1984-85, groundbreaking media coverage of the terrible drought and famine that affected around eight million people in Ethiopia spurred an outpouring of Western relief efforts. A harrowing report by BBC broadcaster Michael Buerk is often cited as the spark that led to Band Aid, a supergroup of British and Irish musicians who...
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August 10, 2011 12:00 PM
Journalism vs. Activism in Indonesia
Reporters divided over advocacy on the environment beat
JAKARTA, INDONESIA—When I ask Indonesian bureaucrats about the latest proclamations from some group concerned about the environment, I often get the same question: “Why are you journalists so close to the activists?” They complain that reporters view them as “the bad guys.”
Is it true? Perhaps. Environmental journalists here love covering reports from advocacy organizations, with all their strident accusations...
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August 4, 2011 11:30 AM
LifeStraw Coverage Divided
Carbon-credit, health angles illustrate global priorities
Kakamega, Kenya—International coverage of a campaign to provide water filters financed by the sale of carbon credits to nearly a million homes here has revealed a noteworthy divide in global priorities related to climate change and public health.
Carbon for Water, as the project is called, is the brainchild of Swiss company Vestergaard Frandsen, which manufactures the filters. By removing...
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July 11, 2011 02:00 PM
Growing Science in the Desert
Several Middle Eastern countries are pouring money into research; will it work?
Doha, Qatar—“Water flows uphill toward money and power,” said hydrologist Tony Allan, citing a political truism during a talk here at the recent World Conference of Science Journalists. Can the same be said for scientific research?
Several Middle Eastern countries are pouring money into new research centers and ventures, hoping to make science bloom in the desert and bear...
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June 7, 2011 10:37 AM
Environmental Journalism Associations Proliferating Worldwide
Members find strength—and challenges—in numbers
When I was a journalist uncovering how oil and petrochemical companies were dumping mercury into the Gulf of Thailand, I could not get the Thai minister of industry to respond to my questions. I would send interview requests and call up his office, but he felt free to ignore me.
When the Thai Society of Environmental Journalists (ThaiSEJ)—made up of...
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May 3, 2011 08:45 AM
Red Alert on the Green Beat
Violence and threats severely restrain environmental coverage in much of the world
In 2007, Cherelle Jackson started publishing a three-part series of investigative reports that examined plans to develop tourism on an uninhabited island in her home country of Samoa.
“The story involved some high profile investors and politicians,” she recalls. “It was to reveal names of everyone involved and their parts in the story. I investigated the history, agreements of...
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April 5, 2011 02:56 PM
The Climate Context in Japan
Crisis tests media’s ability to frame nuclear debate in a world beset by energy risks
When I was a young journalist working as the environment editor for a Thai newspaper back in the 1990s, one of the first things I learned was this: In order to cover the environment, you have to understand the energy sector—not just what it emits, but the politics, economics, and technical issues surrounding it. And vice versa: Those reporting on...
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March 1, 2011 10:45 AM
Has ‘Climate’ Become a Dirty Word?
Despite audience fatigue, interest remains stronger than ever in the most vulnerable countries
When President Obama gave his State of the Union address in January, there seemed to be more commentary among environmentalists about what wasn’t said than what was: specifically, his failure to even mention the words “climate change” or “global warming” or “carbon” despite speaking effusively about the need for clean energy development.
There has already been plenty of reflection on...
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February 1, 2011 09:00 AM
Introducing ‘Earth Journalism’
A global view of a local beat
In the grand scheme of environmental affairs, journalism is almost always an afterthought. The media world seems to return the disfavor: the environmental beat is one of the least prestigious, and the journalists covering it seem to be among the first laid off during tough times; even journalism schools sometimes give it short shrift.
And yet of course, the environment...
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The Audit Business
- Audit Notes: pyramid people, Disney and ABC, no USA Today paywall Roddy Boyd digs into a diet-shake pyramid scheme
- Hot air Rises Above on CNBC An anchor pins a minor dip in stocks on the TV appearance of a minor politician
The Observatory Science
- Dull news from Doha UN climate summit a ho-hum affair for the press
- Highway to the danger zone Following Sandy, HuffPo and NYT dig into the folly of coastal development
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- NBC News sets good example for Medicare reporting People perspective leads to clear explanation of impact of proposed changes
- In Pennsylvania, a niche site with wide reach PoliticsPA drives political conversation in Keystone State
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