Issue

Environment and Climate Change

Earth's average temperature has risen approximately one degree Fahrenheit in the last 50 years. By the end of this century, it will be several degrees higher, according to the latest climate research.

But global warming is doing more than simply making things a little warmer. It's changing rainfall, causing heat waves, and making sea level rise, all of which create human suffering.

Environment and Climate Change brings together reporting from Pulitzer Center grantees on the abilities of communities in diverse regions to bounce back and adapt to the impacts of climate change: One highlight includes in-depth reporting by Nathaniel Rich on the response to global warming during the 1979-1989 decade—an article that takes up the entire issue of The New York Times Magazine. Our journalists investigate climate change in the Arctic—the effects on indigenous communities, the destruction of the fragile natural environment, and the conflict between humans and polar bears. One interactive, award-winning multimedia project, "Sea Change," looks at ocean acidification, its impact on fishing, people's livelihoods, and food security. The documentary "Easy Like Water" features a solar-powered school boat in Bangladesh, where flooding may create 20 million "climate refugees" by mid-century.

Other stories covered here range from the future of the residents of Kiribati, a low-lying island nation in the Pacific, to the biological diversity of the rainforest in Peru, and the psychological effects of climate change on the inhabitants of Australia and Fiji. How does the melting Arctic ice cap affect our lives? How do overfishing and exploitation of mineral resources beneath the ocean’s surface jeopardize food sources need to sustain the planet’s ever-expanding population?

As part of the Pulitzer Center's long-term support for climate change reporting, the Rainforest Journalism Fund was established to provide capacity for local journalists operating in the rainforest regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, as well as international journalists reporting from those regions. The Fund represents a major investment in global environmental and climate reporting, with plans to support nearly 200 original reporting projects along with annual regional conferences designed to raise the level of reporting on global rainforest issues such as deforestation and climate change.

 

Environment and Climate Change

Environment Undone

To boost economic growth, India is granting environmental clearances fast. But many projects ignore environmental laws, disregard Indigenous rights, and harm India’s last remaining natural resources.

Cape Cod: At the Edge of a Warming World

Come with us as we explore Cape Cod to better understand what climate change is doing here, what it means for the future of this beloved place, and what the cost of inaction could be.

Haiti at 2020 - 10 Years After the Quake

One decade after the deadliest natural disaster of the century, Pulitzer grantees return to examine aid, trade, and a new city created by the catastrophe.

Death of the Pollinators

This year the Brazilian government has authorized the use of 325 pesticides. In Lucas do Rio Verde in the Amazon state of Mato Grosso, the terrible effects of one of these pesticides, Paraquat, was accidentally sprayed over the population back in 2006, can still be seen. It resulted in high cancer rates and the extinction of bees. Will it happen again?

Pulitzer Center Launches Connected Coastlines Initiative

The Pulitzer Center is pleased to announce Connected Coastlines, a collaborative reporting initiative on climate science in U.S. coastal states with support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education.