The reporter who first broke open the US military burn pits scandal and its hazardous environmental impact on veterans discusses how she reported the story and tracked its evolution to the halls of the US Congress.
At the Pulitzer Center’s recent environmental investigative conference, Interconnected: Reporting the Climate Crisis, a panel of environmental reporters and designers explained how data and visualization can make environmental stories compelling.
In a recent Q+A, environmental reporter Mark Olalde discussed a collaborative investigation on the impact of abandoned oil wells and other extractive industry infrastructure on nearby communities. The investigation won second place in the investigative reporting category at the awards of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
This edition of the GIJN Toolbox explores global databases and remote sensing resources that reporters can use to investigate local environmental threats.
Journalists are increasingly using the tools of science journalism and scientific inquiry to carry out in-depth data and investigative reporting, and even to shine a spotlight on questionable scientific findings.
NASA’S Landsat 9 satellite went into orbit on September 27. After about three months of shakedown and calibration, it will be regularly downloading data to anyone who asks. It can show trends in deforestation (or afforestation or reforestation), forest health, agricultural crops, coastal erosion, drought and flooding, and more.
Among five leading environmental journalists who covered COP26, there is cautious optimism, but also a recognition that there is still much to be done. Speaking at the GIJC21, they highlighted a wide range of topics related to climate change that are still underreported by newsrooms around the world.
Investigating the environment in developing countries can be a particularly dangerous game – far more so in the Global South than in North America and Europe. Journalists in the developing world are prime targets for powerful political and economic interests, operate in a hostile climate, and often lose their lives far from the Western media spotlight.
In March 2020, environmental journalist Helena Carpio, leaned out of her window to see Caracas filled with smoke. Something was burning, but no one knew where and there was no official news on what was happening. She started to investigate, and the resulting project analyzed two decades of satellite data on hotspots to explore the when, where, and why of forest fires in Venezuela and across Latin America.
