The Times-Picayune and The Advocate are joining 21 news outlets across the country in a news collaborative focused on the effects of climate change. The Local Media Association’s “Covering Climate Collaborative” includes newspapers recognized as leaders in local climate reporting, as well as television broadcast groups, public radio stations and climate websites. The news organizations currently cover some of the most pressing climate issues, including:
Nola.com
- Sea level rise in the Southeast
- Hurricanes and extreme weather on the Gulf Coast
- Drought in the Southwest and wildfires in the West
- Intense flooding and climate migration in the Midwest and Great Lakes area.
Journalists from these outlets will focus on key issues in their region, collaborating on local coverage and exchanging content with their reporting teams and across the collaborative. The aim is to localize and humanize the effects of rising global temperatures and to empower residents in those communities to take meaningful action. The stakes are high for south Louisiana, where the heat and humidity seem intolerable, the threat of rising seas is greater than any place in the United States and the land is sinking, thanks to coastal erosion hastened by oil and gas exploration, hurricanes and levees that deprive wetlands of the sediment they need,” said Judi Terzotis, publisher of The Times-Picayune and The Advocate. “We look forward to sharing our expertise with others and learning from them.”
Broken into regional hubs, the Gulf Coat partners are:
- The Times-Picayune | The Advocate
- WWNO radio in New Orleans
- WRKF radio in Baton Rouge
- KPRC television in Houston
- KSAT television in San Antonio
“We’re thrilled to announce this group of newsrooms that are recognized for their commitment to reporting locally on the impacts of climate change,” said Frank Mungeam, the Local Media Association’s chief information officer. “This collaboration brings together newsrooms with diverse platform expertise – from print to digital to audio and video – and represents key regions directly affected by our changing climate.”
The Project Manager is Kyla Mandel, a Washington D.C.-based writer and editor. Kyla has written on the climate and environment for the National Geographic, the New York Times and Huffington Post. It might mean that more stories aimed at more people will generate more thought and more action. That can’t be bad!
