I'm back! I’m running to serve on SEJ’s board again this year because I believe in its mission, and in the work that we do as environmental journalists. I've devoted my entire career to climate journalism, and I sincerely believe we CAN weather this crisis. But to do that, we have to inspire our audiences to engage in our work. As I said in my candidate statement last year, the fate of the planet depends on us getting this right. Dramatic, I know. But this is dramatic stuff!
My childhood in Southern California was tinged with wildfire evacuations, stifling air pollution on smoggy days and drought-induced water restrictions. Now I am a public radio reporter, and I persistently covered climate for three years until my employer, KCRW, formalized my role and created its first ever climate beat reporter position. Solutions and accountability are at the center of everything I do. I’m the host of our station’s first climate podcast (aptly named The Anti-Dread Climate Podcast), where every episode is inspired by questions that listeners send in about how they can help the planet. I was a member of Solution Journalism Network's first ever climate cohort of fellows, and I also regularly report stories for NPR and Marketplace. I started doing all that in an effort to quell my own climate anxiety, and now I’m fueled by the desire to do the same for my listeners.
I’ve watched climate coverage adapt to the evolving crisis beautifully, and the work to continue adapting hasn’t finished. Audiences are becoming more educated and more afraid of the climate crisis every year, and that requires our beat to change again. Now coverage has to come with far more nuance, by continuing to inform audiences about arguably the greatest challenge it's ever faced, without forcing listeners, viewers and readers to bury their heads in the sand in an effort to save their own mental health. That requires solutions-oriented stories that empower audiences to participate in the fight against climate change, stories that hold businesses and agencies to account by questioning the solutions they have failed to provide or that have failed to work, stories that explain complicated science and tackle confusing messaging, and stories that highlight new efforts with context about scalability and economic viability.
As a member of this board I hope to help climate journalists with this transition in our coverage. That includes providing a space for peer support to build mental resilience in a beat that can be scary, physically taxing and emotionally exhausting. It also requires spotlighting examples of successful audience engagement and challenging coverage experiences so we can learn from our colleagues, and further strengthen our growing climate journalism community.
The community of people SEJ has created is invaluable, and the opportunities it provides are so important in influencing how we handle this challenge. SEJ has made a remarkable team of journalists, and I’m ready to serve it.
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