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Whenever we discuss climate journalism & storytelling, we shouldn't forget the massive, well-funded interference of the Carbon Lobby.
Orders of magnitude more communications professionals get paychecks from those groups than make their livings as climate journalists and writers
Orders of magnitude more communications professionals get paychecks from those groups than make their livings as climate journalists and writers
Speaking of which: Does anyone keep track of how many full-time, experienced climate journalists are at work in America?
Because I'd honestly be surprised if it was more than 200, and shocked if it was more than 500...
Because I'd honestly be surprised if it was more than 200, and shocked if it was more than 500...
Obviously, thousands of folks opine about climate in writing and on the air, but how many reporters have both the time to seek out unseen/under-reported stories—and the experience to find those stories and tell them well in all their complexity and importance?
Fewer than needed.
Fewer than needed.
One of the consequences is that we get the same set endlessly recycled stories told again and again, from the same perspectives, using the same general facts... because that's what folks strapped for time and not fully versed on the issues can produce under deadline.
Another is that the larger framings of how we tell these stories falls further & further out-of-date.
The overall structure of the climate debate, worldwide, is not all that different than it was 30 years ago.
That's not because it has timeless resonance.
The overall structure of the climate debate, worldwide, is not all that different than it was 30 years ago.
That's not because it has timeless resonance.
Genuinely new insight on the planetary crisis is hard won.
It demands wrestling with huge, complex systems in ways that are hard to immediately turn into good stories (even if you have a market for them/ job telling them).
And this work in particular meets with real opposition.
It demands wrestling with huge, complex systems in ways that are hard to immediately turn into good stories (even if you have a market for them/ job telling them).
And this work in particular meets with real opposition.
There are a lot of people who have vested interests in keeping those frames from changing.
Many of them even claim to be climate/sustainability experts/advocates.
The nastiness of the reaction new ways of thinking get from these people is not pretty to see.
Many of them even claim to be climate/sustainability experts/advocates.
The nastiness of the reaction new ways of thinking get from these people is not pretty to see.
The small group of people with the experience and time to pursue good reporting/writing grounded in new insights has had to do that work in the face of a massive amount of organized hostility, workplace friction+ emotional pressure—or at least all the ones I know personally have.
