Overlooked and Underappreciated: Climate Change, Health, and Communications

Climate change is most often equated with flooding, rising seas, and severe storms. But what about its impacts on human health? These include the expanded reach of infectious disease pathogens, deaths from extreme heat, erosion of mental health, and growing numbers of climate refugees, to name a few. During this panel, journalists discuss their reporting on these issues, how they work with sources for their stories, and how experts across scientific fields can better communicate their research to the public. They will also share how communities themselves are developing solutions. 

This communications workshop is organized by the Pulitzer Center and Global Health NOW.

Speakers for the workshop on Friday, April 1, 2022, at 9 am eastern:

Carly Berlin is the Gulf Coast correspondent for Southerly Magazine. Berlin began reporting on Hurricane Laura's aftermath the day after the storm hit, interviewing evacuees who had fled to New Orleans, where she lives. Learn more from her Pulitzer Center-supported reporting project on how communities in Louisiana navigated hurricane recovery during a pandemic.

Michelle Lotker is an award-winning cinematographer, producer, and editor with a science and journalism background that allows her to communicate science in a broadly engaging way. Her work focuses on using people-centered, documentary-style storytelling to communicate scientific research and environmental issues. She has been featured at several film festivals, including the International Wildlife Film Festival.

Agostino Petroni describes himself as an economist and a gastronome who has reported in the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. A graduate of Columbia Journalism School, Petroni’s Pulitzer Center-supported projects include A Parasite Ate My Ear, combining a focus on climate change with his own battle with leishmaniasis, a dangerous flesh-eating disease.

Brian W. Simpson is editor-in-chief of the news website and weekday newsletter Global Health NOW and editor of Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health magazine, published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also teaches writing for professionals at the Bloomberg School and graduate science writing at Johns Hopkins University. He is a member of the Pulitzer Center’s Campus Consortium Advisory Council.

Ann Peters oversees the Pulitzer Center’s public programming and its Campus Consortium network, which creates opportunities for journalists, students, and faculty to examine global issues across disciplines. She began her career as a journalist at United Press International covering stories from North Carolina to South Africa. As a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, she also worked for human rights organizations.

On Thursday, March 31, 2022, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm eastern, the Pulitzer Center will also hold an online film festival at the CUGH 2022 Conference.

The Pulitzer Center curated a series of short films for its CUGH 2022 Conference Film Festival, aligning with the theme of 'Healthy People, Healthy Planet, Social Justice.' Among the films: One documentary focuses on the work of an African artist who has devoted his life to honoring the lives of his ancestors and memorializing the humanity and individuality of enslaved people. Another highlights women tree planters in Southeast Asia who are returning to their forest after COVID-19 stopped their work to preserve the area’s biodiversity. Other films consider the impact of climate change on ancestral lands and coastal shorelines in the U.S. and what locals and governments are contemplating as their next best steps for communities hit hardest.

The festival screening will be followed by a conversation between the Pulitzer Center's Ann Peters and filmmaker Duy Linh Tu regarding his Pulitzer Center-supported reporting project Uprooted for Scientific American. His reporting in part focused on the Indigenous people of Pointe-Au-Chenes, Louisiana, a small fishing village on the Gulf Coast. They have seen their livelihoods and their way of life irreversibly disrupted as climate change and coastal erosion have submerged nearly 98% of their lands since the 1950s. 

These events are for conference participants. Learn more at: www.cugh2022.org