Dispatches from the front lines of environmental reporting

A Listening Post special on the environment beat, from the reporters being attacked on the job to an extended interview with climate columnist George Monbiot.

The hostile environment beat

When journalists talk about the most dangerous beats in the news business, they typically talk about war zones or trying to cover drug cartels in Mexico.

However, environmental reporting is not far behind. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 13 reporters doing environmentally related work have been killed in the past decade. Another 16 deaths during the same period are under investigation.

The environment beat is perilous because it often involves exposing the abuses taking place as lucrative minerals are extracted. When there’s enough money involved, there will be those who are willing to kill for their share of it.

The Listening Post‘s Nic Muirhead reports on the perils of the environment beat and a new media collaboration designed to protect reporters and get their stories published.

Contributors:

Sandhya Ravishankar – Editor, The Lede

Carlos Choc – Journalist, Presna Comunitaria

Juliette Garside – Reporter, The Guardian

Laurent Richard – Executive director, Forbidden Stories

Bruno Takahashi – Research director, Knight Center for Journalism

An interview with The Guardian’s George Monbiot

British journalist and campaigner George Monbiot is one of environmental journalism’s best-known figures.

His weekly column in the British daily The Guardian, which he has been filing since 1996, tends to have a polarising effect on audiences. It has always been widely read, shared and praised, but has also seen Monbiot branded an alarmist.

As the years have passed, however – and as temperatures and sea levels have risen – many in the political and media mainstream have come around to what he has argued all along: that humanity is facing an unprecedented threat that only rapid decarbonisation can prevent.

In his interview with The Listening Post, Monbiot discusses his career and delivers a coruscating critique of the mainstream media’s record on the climate crisis.

Contributor:

George Monbiot – Columnist, The Guardian