When Poynter launched Beat Academy at the end of 2022, we knew that climate change was going to be a central focus of this training, as we aimed to give journalists an edge in covering evolving beats.
Climate change has certainly been a moving target.
As a journalist and fact-checker, I recognize the difficulty journalists face in knowing where to start with such a massive and controversial topic that quite literally has worldwide implications.
It helps to look at the issue in terms of your own community. If you take a moment, you can find a link to some of the most common areas we cover, like schools, sports, business and taxes.
Take the municipal budget. Staying on top of the humble pothole is costing local governments more, thanks to increased rainfall and more swings in freezing and thawing.
Perhaps you cover education. Some New Orleans schools face huge hikes in their building insurance due to more intense storms. More money for premiums means less money for school books — or higher taxes to pay for schools.
Rising insurance premiums for homeowners are another pain point. It turns out that home insurance is barely factored into the Consumer Price Index, but in some places, it’s a major driver of rising housing costs. Climate change makes an affordable housing crisis even worse.
Homeowners get hit in other ways. Not only are they paying higher premiums, but the cost of maintaining a home (think roofing) is going up.
If you cover sports, artificial turf has become an issue. Cities like Los Angeles are trying to wean themselves away from it because while it might be cheaper to maintain, it holds heat like a brick, and has the added downside of releasing nasty chemicals from the plastic.
Want more story ideas? Join Beat Academy and the Society of Environmental Journalists on Thursday, Sept. 12 at 1 p.m. Eastern, where we’ll be joined by reporters with climate chops: the Los Angeles Times’ Tony Barboza and Canary Media’s Maria Gallucci take the energy transition as their starting point. We’ll also be joined by Nina Ignaczak at Planet Detroit and Delaney Dryfoos with The Lens, who will show us the countless options that link back to water.
We’ll also introduce you to a website that will help you pinpoint the climate and water projects happening in your area, funded directly and indirectly through federal policy.
Those projects offer a particular opportunity for journalists. Each one, at bottom, is rooted in some problem. Telling the story of the project takes the audience both into the problem and a potential solution. Because that’s the challenge of climate change reporting: Striking the balance between alerting the public to real challenges, and showing the opportunities for success.
Enroll here. Use discount code 24climateBA18 at checkout for 75% off — you’ll pay just $18 for this webinar and get access to all of our 2024 sessions as well.
