Illustration by Doug Chayka.
Editor’s Note, 9/23/2019: More than 300 news outlets around the world with a combined audience of more than a billion people have signed on for Covering Climate Now.
Editor’s Note, 9/16/19: More than 250 news outlets around the world with a combined audience of more than a billion people have signed on for Covering Climate Now.
Editor’s Note, 8/28/19: More than 170 news outlets from around the world with a combined audience of hundreds of millions of people have signed on for Covering Climate Now, a project co-founded by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation, aimed at strengthening the media’s focus on the climate crisis. Covering Climate Now now ranks as one of the most ambitious efforts ever to organize the world’s media around a single coverage topic. A full list of participating outlets follows; to learn more, please email: editors@cjr.org.
“Can we tell the story so people get it?”
That’s the mission TV newsman Bill Moyers urged at the launch of Covering Climate Now, a project aimed at breaking the climate silence that has long prevailed within too much of the news media. Cofounded by The Nation and Columbia Journalism Review, in partnership with The Guardian, Covering Climate Now aims to convene and inform a conversation among journalists about how all news outlets—big and small, digital and print, TV and radio, US-based and abroad—can do justice to the defining story of our time.
Today, Covering Climate Now is proud to announce the first batch of news outlets participating in this effort. More than 60 outlets have signed on so far, with more added every day. There are TV networks (CBS News) and local TV stations; major newspapers in the United States (The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times) and abroad (Asahi Shimbun and La Repubblica, the biggest newspapers in Japan and Italy, respectively); eminent specialist publications (Nature, Scientific American, Inside Climate News, Harvard Business Review); distinguished digital publications (HuffPost, Vox, The Intercept, Slate); regional outlets (The Texas Observer, the Colorado Springs Gazette); public radio stations in New York City; Washington, DC; Chicago; Philadelphia; Boston; New Orleans; Louisville; and San Francisco) and public radio programs (Marketplace, Science Friday, The World); popular magazines (Maclean’s of Canada, Newsweek Japan); leading individual and institutional voices (author Bill McKibben, the radio and TV program Democracy Now!, Channel 4 UK correspondent Alex Thomson, veteran TV meteorologists Dan Satterfield, Mike Nelson, and Paul Gross); and many more.
Each of these outlets has committed to running one week of focused climate coverage to begin September 16 and culminate September 23, the day of the landmark international Climate Action Summit hosted by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York. We’re not here to tell people what to write or broadcast. All that’s required is for each outlet to make a good-faith effort to increase the amount and the visibility of its climate coverage—to make it clear to their audiences that climate change is not just one more story but the overriding story of our time. The point is to give the climate story the attention and prominence that scientists have long said it demands so that the public and policy-makers can make wise choices. Can we, in other words, tell the story so people get it?
We see Covering Climate Now as a fulfillment of journalism’s most sacred responsibilities, which are to inform people and foster constructive debate about common challenges and opportunities. Arguably, no problem in today’s world is more challenging, or offers brighter opportunities than climate change. In a landmark report last October, scientists with the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that humanity had just 12 years to slash heat-trapping emissions in half or else face catastrophic temperature rise and the record-breaking extreme weather it unleashes. Meanwhile, spectacular advances in solar, wind, and energy efficiency illustrate how doing right by the climate can make our societies better, not worse, if we’re smart about it.
To elevate climate coverage, as the Covering Climate Now collaboration aims to do, is no more of a value judgment than it is to sideline such coverage. For many years now, most of the news media, at least in the United States, has done the latter. The major TV networks devoted more air time in a week this spring to a new royal baby in Britain than they did in the entire year to the climate crisis story. When last October’s IPCC report was released, 28 of the 50 biggest US newspapers didn’t bother to tell their readers about it.
Here are the names of the journalistic leaders that have signed on to the Covering Climate Now initiative. If you don’t see your favorite news outlets among them, ask those outlets to get in touch with us. We would welcome their participation.
We can be reached at coveringclimatenow@cjr.org.
We now confront a second Trump presidency.
There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.
Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.
Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.
The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”
I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.
Onwards,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation
LIST (updated August 28, 2019)
Columbia Journalism Review (Cofounder)
The Nation (Cofounder)
The Guardian (Lead Media Partner) Wire Services and News & Photo Agencies
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Bloomberg
Getty Images Newspapers
The (Colorado Springs) Gazette
The Christian Science Monitor
Get unlimited access: $9.50 for six months.
The Daily Hampshire Gazette
DigBoston
The Minneapolis Star Tribune
The National Catholic Reporter
The Oklahoman
The Philadelphia Inquirer & Inquirer.com
The Portland Press Herald (Maine)
The San Francisco Chronicle
The Seattle Times
The (New Jersey) Star-Ledger & NJ.com
La Nacion (Argentina)
The Queen’s Journal (Queen’s University, Canada)
The Toronto Star (Canada)
The Varsity (The University of Toronto, Canada)
La Tercera (Chile)
The Hindustan Times (India)
The Times of India (India)
La Repubblica (Italy)
The Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
The Nepali Times (Nepal)
The New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
Público (Portugal)
The Straits Times (Singapore)
The Mail & Guardian (South Africa)
El País (Spain)
Trouw (The Netherlands)
The i (United Kingdom) Magazines, Journals, and Digital News Sites
The Alpinist
Bay Nature
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Bustle
BuzzFeed News
The Chicago Review of Books
Circle of Blue
Civil Eats
Climate Desk
CQ & Roll Call
The Daily Beast
DCist
DeSmog
EcoRI News
Ecosystem Marketplace
EcoWatch
Ensia
Green Philly
Grist
Harvard Business Review
Honolulu Civil Beat
HuffPost
IEEE Spectrum
The Intercept
In These Times
InsideClimate News
IPS Inter Press Service
Jolon Indian Media
Journal for the Planet
Lapham’s Quarterly
Literary Hub
Mongabay
Mother Jones
New Mexico In Depth
The New Republic
Newsweek
Nexus Media
The Oklahoma Observer
PassBlue
PublicSource
Quartz
The Real News Network
Renewable Energy World
Rethinking Schools
Rock and Ice
Rolling Stone
Science
Scientific American
Sentient Media
Silica Magazine
The Shoestring
Slate
Sludge
StateImpact Pennsylvania
Talking Points Memo
Teen Vogue
The Texas Observer
The Tuscon Sentinel
Truthout
Vanity Fair
Vice
Vox
VTDigger
The Weather Channel Digital
WhoWhatWhy
Yale Climate Connections
Yale Environment 360
Croakey Health Media (Australia)
Eureka Street (Australia)
Revolve (Belgium)
My News Brasil (Brazil)
The Coast (Canada)
Corporate Knights (Canada)
Kingstonist News (Canada)
Maclean’s (Canada)
The National Observer (Canada)
Planet Friendly News (Canada)
The Sprawl (Canada)
Taproot Edmonton (Canada)
TVO (Canada)
The Tyee (Canada)
Ojo al Clima (Costa Rica)
K-News.dk (Denmark)
Solidaritet (Denmark)
Clean Energy Wire & Klimafakten.de (Germany)
Correctiv (Germany)
KlimaSocial (Germany)
Spektrum der Wissenschaft (Germany)
People’s Archive of Rural India (India)
The Wire (India)
Newsweek Japan (Japan)
Morocco World News (Morocco)
Newsroom (New Zealand)
The Spinoff (New Zealand)
Stuff (New Zealand)
Denník N (Slovakia)
The Daily Maverick (South Africa)
WOZ Die Wochenzeitung (Switzerland)
De Groene Amsterdammer (The Netherlands)
The Confidential Report (Togo)
NewsLab Turkey (Turkey)
BusinessGreen (United Kingdom)
Climate News Network (United Kingdom)
The Conversation (United Kingdom)
Immediate Media (United Kingdom)
Nature (United Kingdom)
Physics World (United Kingdom) Television & Multimedia
CBS News
Democracy Now!
PBS NewsHour
The Years Project & Years of Living Dangerously
WFAA (Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas)
WJCT (Jacksonville, FL)
WNET’s Peril and Promise (New York, NY)
News18 (India)
RTÉ’s Brainstorm Project (Ireland)
TG1/RAI (Italy)
TVNZ’s 1 News (New Zealand)
Politically Aweh, TV news show (South Africa)
TV3 & Catalunya Ràdio (Spain)
Swedish Television / SVT (Sweden) Radio & Podcasts
Climate One (podcast)
Elemental: Covering Sustainability (regional collaborative of NPR stations in Denver, CO.; Phoenix, AZ; and Los Angeles, CA)
Global GoalsCast (podcast)
Hudson Mohawk Radio Network (WOOC, WOOS, and WOOA, in upstate NY)
KALW (San Francisco Bay Area, CA)
KPCC (Los Angeles, CA.)
KQED (San Francisco Bay Area, CA)
KUOW (Seattle, WA)
Marketplace Tech, by American Public Media
Nevada Public Radio
Science Friday, by WNYC Studios
The Allegheny Front, on WESA (Pittsburgh, PA)
WAMU (Washington, DC)
WBEZ (Chicago, IL)
WBUR (Boston, MA)
WFPL (Louisville, KY)
WHYY (Philadelphia, PA)
WNYC (New York, NY)
WRAL (Raleigh, NC)
WWNO (New Orleans, LA)
The World, by PRI and the BBC (United Kingdom) Institutional
Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism
Boston University
Climate Matters & Climate Central (George Mason University Center for Climate Communications, and Climate Communications)
Journalist’s Resource (The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, at Harvard University)
Solutions Journalism Network
Yale Climate Change & Health Initiative
Insper (Brazil)
blogdroiteuropéen (Europe)
Netzwerk Weitblick (Germany)
Manchester University (United Kingdom)
The Lancet Countdown on Climate Change and Health (United Kingdom) Independent Journalists (outlets & affiliations listed for identification purposes only)
David Biello (TED Talks)
Rex Dalton (Formerly of Nature)
Mike Favetta (Founding meteorologist, WeatherPrep)
Dan Gardner
Paul Gross (Chief meteorologist, WDIV in Detroit, MI)
Stephen Leahy (Freelance biosphere journalist)
Bill McKibben
Mike Nelson (Chief meteorologist, Channel 7 in Denver, CO)
Don Paul (Contributing meteorologist, The Buffalo News)
Jake Price
Yereth Rosen (Formerly of the Anchorage Daily News)
Benjamin Ryan (The New York Times)
Dan Satterfield (Chief meteorologist, WBOC in Salisbury, MD)
Peter Schwartzstein (freelance environmental & Middle East correspondent)
Alex Steffen
Isabel Seta (Brazil)
Sean Holman (Canada)
Tracy Sherlock (Freelance journalist, Canada)
Manka Behl (The Times of India, India)
Preeti Jha (India)
Marcello Rossi (Freelance environmental reporter, Italy)
Angelina Davydova (Freelance journalist, Russia)
Alex Thomson (Channel 4 News, United Kingdom)
Michael Tatarski (Vietnam)
Mark HertsgaardTwitterMark Hertsgaard is the environment correspondent of The Nation and the executive director of the global media collaboration Covering Climate Now. His new book is Big Red’s Mercy: The Shooting of Deborah Cotton and A Story of Race in America.
Kyle PopeKyle Pope, a former editor of Columbia Journalism Review, is a cofounder and the executive director for strategic initiatives at Covering Climate Now.