Yesterday came the announcement of an unprecedented collaboration to create climate change journalism. Meet The Climate Desk:
The Climate Desk is a journalistic collaboration dedicated to exploring the impact—human, environmental, economic, political—of a changing climate. The partners are The Atlantic, Center for Investigative Reporting, Grist, Mother Jones, Slate, Wired, and PBS's new public-affairs show Need To Know.
There has never been a joining of forces like this...but there is every reason to expect it will produce much valuable content. Moreover, The Climate Desk's expressed raison d'etre makes four points that I heartily agree with:
1) Climate change is slow-moving, vast, and overwhelming for news organizations to grapple with. 2) What coverage there is tends to be fractured and compartmentalized—science, technology, politics, and business aspects are covered by different teams, or "desks" of reporters, despite the intrinsic connections. 3) Coverage is too often fixated on imperiled wildlife, political gamesmanship, or the "debate" over the existence of climate change, all at the expense of advancing the bigger story—how we're going to address, mitigate, or adapt to it. 4) Cuts to news organizations are making matters worse.
Yes, indeed, yes. So go check out The Climate Desk
, and become a follower. We need all the help we can get.
