We’re excited to share the news that TIME is joining Covering Climate Now — during the same week that CCNow’s ‘Burning Questions’ premiered on public television’s WORLD channel across the United States.
“TIME focuses on the stories that matter and climate is the existential issue of our time. Through our editorial coverage of climate change, sustainability, and climate innovation, leadership and solutions, we aim to both be a guide to the future and to take on a broader role in ensuring a sustainable one,” said TIME editor-in-chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal. “We look forward to joining Covering Climate Now as we continue to expand on this mission.”
Mark Hertsgaard, CCNow’s executive director, said, “TIME has been a global leader in climate journalism since the magazine named Endangered Planet Earth its ‘Person of the Year’ in 1989. And it remains laser-focused on the story, as its new special issue on COP27 demonstrates.”
TIME’s commitment to covering climate solutions closely aligns with CCNow’s mission to encourage a complete telling of the climate story. The next stage in climate reporting is to highlight — and interrogate — potential solutions, Hertsgaard and CCNow co-founder Kyle Pope argue in a piece accompanying ‘Burning Questions.’
The TV special features exceptional journalism that humanizes “the relentless severity of the unfolding climate crisis,” they write, adding: “We saw videos of kids who lived on a farm in Iowa where year after year of erratic weather made it economically infeasible to continue and the family moved away. We heard songs from people living alongside a river in India, people who had been displaced by worsening floods and were memorializing their grief in song. … The effects of climate change can be unspeakably sad, but they can also yield unforgettable journalism.”
Now, “The narrative needs to move towards solutions,” the CCNow co-founders add. Audiences have indicated they want to hear more about climate solutions — stories of climate doom, on their own, can be depressing and lead readers to tune out. Informing audiences about the many potential solutions to climate change gives them reason to engage. As Justin Worland of TIME says in ‘Burning Questions,’ “It’s critically important for journalists to give that full picture — to say that this is a really bad problem; we also have really good solutions; we just need to make sure we implement them.”
We hope fellow journalists everywhere will watch ‘Burning Questions,’ send us your reactions, and spread the word:
From Us
Talking Shop. Ahead of COP27 next month, CCNow and three journalists who are veterans of covering United Nations climate summits — Carolyn Beeler of The World, Nicolas Haque of Al Jazeera English, and Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson of the Associated Press — discussed how to report on COP27, from afar or on site, in ways that resonate with audiences. Watch.
Twitter Spaces. CCNow, Columbia Journalism Review, and the WORLD Channel co-hosted a Twitter Spaces this week on the future of climate journalism. Craig LeMoult of GBH News and CCNow’s Mekdela Maskal moderated with guests Ugochi Anyaka-Oluigbo (freelance), Ethan Brown (WNET), Jeff Goodell (Rolling Stone), Chris Hastings (WORLD), Kelly Macnamara (AFP), Shannon Osaka (Washington Post), and Fara Warner (Solutions Journalism Network). Listen.
Climate solutions. CCNow has produced a new guide to help news audiences better understand the solutions to climate change and how they can be part of those solutions. Feel free to republish it or use it in your own reporting. Have a look.
We’re hiring! Covering Climate Now is looking for an energetic, experienced managing director to oversee its day-to-day operations and provide strategic leadership for the organization. Learn more.
Noteworthy Stories
In their words. Ten years after Hurricane Sandy blasted New York City, causing at least 44 deaths and $60 billion in economic damages, 10 people who survived the storm talk about how they got through it and what they learned. Read and listen at Gothamist…
COP27. Ahead of COP27, the UN reports that only 26 of the 193 nations that pledged at COP26 to step up their climate actions have actually done so. Unless that changes, the Earth could warm by 2.1 to 2.9 degrees Celsius by 2100 — well above the 1.5 degree C goal of the Paris agreement that scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. By Max Bearak at The New York Times…
More bad news for the planet. The three main greenhouse gases hit record high levels in the atmosphere last year, according to the World Meteorological Organization. California’s 2020 record-breaking wildfire season didn’t help. The fires released enough CO2 to effectively nullify all of the emission reductions achieved by the last 18 years of government policy in California, long one of the world’s leaders in climate mitigation, reports Hayley Smith in the LA Times…
Lessons from Bangladesh. People in Bangladesh understand the realities of climate change much better than their US counterparts, largely because Bangladesh’s media treats climate change as a major news story, argues Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh. “I hope news outlets in the United States and other powerful countries will follow Bangladesh’s lead,” he writes, because defusing the climate emergency will be impossible “without much more ambitious action by the US.” Read it at TIME…
Two billion children. A new report from UNICEF finds that 559 million children worldwide currently endure four to five dangerous heat waves annually. Worse, the number of children affected is forecast to grow to 2 billion by 2050, even if heating is limited to 1.7 degrees C — currently the best case scenario. By Nina Lakhani at the Guardian…
Taking aim. The Lancet Countdown’s annual examination of climate change and health finds that extreme weather has increased heat deaths by 68% in vulnerable populations around the world since 2000; it also triggered hunger in nearly 100 million people globally in 2020. The report accuses fossil fuel companies, and governments that subsidize them, of subverting “efforts to deliver a low carbon, healthy, liveable future.” By Evan Bush at NBC News…
Wind power. The largest offshore wind farm in the world is located off the coast of Grimsby, England. More than 300 wind turbines produce electricity to help power over 2 million homes. The news program ‘60 Minutes’ traveled to Grimsby to learn about how the turbines work and how the project has been received locally. Watch it at CBS…
Free to Publish
Visit our Sharing Library to see stories that are free to publish by CCNow partners.
Events & Resources
Global South climate experts. Carbon Brief and the Oxford Climate Journalism Network have launched the Global South Climate Database, a publicly available searchable database of scientists and experts in the fields of climate science, climate policy, and energy from the Global South. An event will be held on October 31 to launch the database. RSVP.
Ocean shots. Climate Visuals has just released scores of impactful and diverse ocean and coastal climate imagery that are free for use by the media. Check it out.
Justice. The Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources is holding a two-day virtual workshop called “Climate Justice + Environmental Racism.” They will select up to 25 applicants who represent diversity in geography, outlet, race, gender, experience, and journalistic medium. Starts November 1. Apply here.
Jobs, etc.
Jobs. Climate Central is hiring a visualizations producer/editor. WSOC-TV in Charlotte, N.C., is looking for a climate reporter. Scientific American is looking for a news intern.
Pitches. BBC Future Planet is looking for pitches for features about environmental solutions. Learn more.
