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

Guardians of the Coast

Indigenous Guardians are a formidable presence on the coast of British Columbia, Canada. This project will use patrol data to examine the spatial extent of the Guardians' work.

Carbon Chronicles

With journalists in Indonesia and Brazil, the stories in this project highlight how tropical forests in Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Amazonia might ameliorate—or, to the contrary, aggravate—climate change. The project also explores the current impacts of climate change on people and wildlife.

Deforestation in Malaysia: Gaps and Drivers

Drivers of forest loss in Malaysia are deeply rooted in the country’s legislation and in the lack of quality and transparent forest cover data. This reporting investigates the laws, the numbers, and the stakeholders.

Living Solutions

Stories and teaching material prepared by Climate Central, Gothamist , The Guardian, and The Earth institute exploring efforts to adapt to climate change using marshes, trees and other natural features.

Meet the Journalist: Kai Schultz

Kai Schultz reports from the Maldives on its transition to democracy, the misappropriation of tourist taxes, safety at resorts, and the growing fear of Islamic radicalization.

Meet the Journalist: Fred Pearce

200 environmental and human rights activists are assassinated each year, according to Global Witness. Fred Pearce investigates the headline-grabbing slayings of three of these activists.

Meet the Journalist: Wudan Yan

Palm oil has been condemned for rampant deforestation in Southeast Asia. How can the world produce more of it in a more sustainable manner? Journalist Wudan Yan investigated in Fall 2016.

Ferrogrão, a Path of Illusion

A project considered strategic by the Brazilian government underestimates socio-environmental impacts in one of the most threatened regions of the Amazon.