Pulitzer Center Update June 13, 2022
'Climate Is Everything': Investigating Interconnected Crises
Over 100 Climate Journalists Gather in D.C. to Address the Climate Crisis
Last week was full of ideas, excitement, and collaboration as we gathered our colleagues, grantees, and Fellows focused on climate and rainforest issues in Washington, D.C., for the Pulitzer Center’s annual conference, Interconnected: Reporting the Climate Crisis.
Focused this year on the urgent crisis facing our planet’s coastlines, rainforests, oceans, and polar regions, conversations at the conference focused on the impact on the people and communities who inhabit environments threatened by climate change and the methods with which journalists, educators, and the public can work together to bring these urgent stories to light and hold those in power to account.
Along with the excitement of coming together in-person with this brilliant group of people, the mood was also somber, as the entire journalism community urgently sought news on the safety of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian activist Bruno Pereira, missing since early June 5 in a remote area of the Amazon.
“As we gather this week, reporting on the climate crisis is more dangerous than ever. Our thoughts are with our colleagues and friends as the search for answers into the disappearance of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira in the Amazonas region of the Brazilian Amazon continues,” said Pulitzer Center Executive Director Jon Sawyer as he opened Thursday’s Day 1 plenary.
We join our colleagues in urging the Brazilian authorities to take every measure possible to find them, and we hope for their safety. We honor their commitment to this work, their courage, and their willingness to risk their own safety in pursuit of the stories we need to hear.
The pressing work continues. Explore the highlights from #Interconnected22 Day 1 here, including the launch of the Pulitzer Center’s International Education and Outreach Initiative, and enlightening discussions on the intersection of climate and labor, climate and religion, and climate and gender.
Impact
WCNY’s Pulitzer Center-supported series SPD: Reckoning & Reform was named Outstanding Public Affairs Program or Series in the Medium Market Television category in the New York State Broadcasters Association (NYSBA)’s Excellence In Broadcasting Awards. Grantees Mitch Gelman, Richard Esposito, Eric Jackson, Mylz Blake, Chad Petterson, and Jim Olech collaborated on the project.
Their reporting centers activists and officers and what they are doing to bridge divides in the city amid nationwide calls for racial justice and police accountability. SPD: Reckoning & Reform is streaming now via WCNY-TV. It originally aired in October 2021.
This message first appeared in the June 10, 2022, edition of the Pulitzer Center's weekly newsletter. Subscribe today.
