Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://archive.gijn.org/tag/environment/page/4/)
We’re back with another Research Desk post. We’ve curated a collection of two new research databases and thirteen new or updated research reports. All of the resources listed and linked below are free to access and use.
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from January 8 to 14 finds free font-for-numbers by @InVisionApp, a William Playfair biography book review for @WSJBookReviews and @PublicDataLab’s just-released full version of its fake news field guide.
Climate change is such a big and important topic that there are many opportunities for journalists to investigate it, writes James Fahn, and so far they may just be scratching the surface.
What’s the investigative journalism twist on covering the climate crisis? Much of the biggest news understandably comes from scientists, but there’s lots of potential for imaginative reporting, as discussed in a new GIJN resource guide on climate.
In spite of official efforts to control news coverage of last week’s deadly explosions in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, Chinese media have responded swiftly not only to cover the fast-moving disaster, but also to probe the why and how of the tragedy. Within hours of the blast, leading Chinese media, both traditional and online, began investigating reasons for the toxic facilities to be built next to residential developments, the ownership of the storage, the failure of government oversight, and the botched response to the disaster.
In this just-released video, investigative reporter Mark Schapiro goes in-depth on how to use investigative techniques in probing often complex environmental issues. Schapiro, a veteran of the original Center for Investigative Reporting, gave this talk in Hamburg at NR15, the July 2015 annual conference of Netzwerk Recherche, Germany’s investigative journalism association.
The environment is the overarching issue of the 21st century for two reasons:
1. The environment includes and touches everything: air, water, food, health, climate, energy, development, poverty, economics—the list could go on without end.
2. Nearly every major environmental indicator is in decline.
We are pushing up against the limits of the Earth’s ability to support us. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and nitrogen pollution are moving toward crisis levels, according to recent studies. There is little public awareness of this reality, which means journalists covering the environment have a plethora of important stories to cover.