Initiative
Our Work/Environment
Our Work/Environment is a funding initiative to encourage reporting that illuminates how pivotal work sectors may be upended by high temperatures, climate-related floods and droughts, and unpredictable weather—and how communities and companies must adapt.
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HOW IT WORKS
This initiative provides funding for reporting projects that dig deep into how specific industries or sectors are at risk. We assess the proposals on a weekly basis. Reporters can receive funds for travel and hard-reporting costs, including data collection, to complete their assignments with an independent news outlet. Once published, the Pulitzer Center Engagement team will help to amplify the stories, engage with audiences, and measure impact.
APPLY FOR A JOURNALISM GRANT
Our Work/Environment aims for journalists to reveal problems and offer solutions. We are interested in hearing from workers and employers who have failed or succeeded in dealing with climate risk. We want to hear from communities about how rising temperatures may affect their livelihoods and economic sustainability. Will jobs disappear? What are the greatest risks: heat, flooding, drought? Are workers’ unions, companies, or governments seeking real-life solutions?
We are interested in regions hardest hit by heat, notably in Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America, but there is no geographic limit to any ambitious story proposal. We seek creative cross-platform accounts in print, digital, broadcast TV, radio, and film projects, as well as data and computer-assisted journalism. We encourage storytelling that can be shared across continents and, if possible, in collaboration with others.
NEW OPPORTUNITY: The Pulitzer Center, the Financial Times, and One World Media are excited to announce a new film partnership focused on climate change and how work and workers are affected. We’re looking for an experienced filmmaker who wants to explore, through a short documentary, how climate change is affecting lives and work in the Global South. We want to amplify new perspectives, stories, and voices on our changing climate with particular focus on the economic transition. Learn more here.
"The support of the Pulitzer Center for this project has enabled me to include a multimedia approach to reporting on South Africa’s just energy transition through the financial support towards traveling costs to the different case study areas for the project with other journalists that specialize in videography and photography."
DIANAH CHIYANGWA
Pulitzer Center grantee
"There is no question whatsoever that without Pulitzer support on my heat and labor project, this vital piece of reporting never would have happened. [...] This summer was the hottest in history, and we have seen several cases of outdoor laborers dying due to high heat conditions in the US, so that also added to the conversation. I think the timing was right for the story, since it was able to put some of these deaths as well as the new UPS contract push from teamsters, into context."
ARYN BAKER
Pulitzer Center 2023 ORN Fellow and grantee
RESOURCES
Do you want to report on climate and labor but don’t know where to start? We believe in radical sharing of methodologies and lessons learned from the projects we support so they may serve as valuable resources and blueprints for other newsrooms, universities, and civil society organizations pursuing similar projects. Click the Toolkits and Tips tab below to view the full set of resources, or view our featured resources below.
CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT RESOURCE
We Worked With Scientists To Measure the Impact of Extreme Heat on Urban Workers
This report combines using accessible technology, working closely with the intended audience’s communities, and collaborating with a leading scientist in the field of heat and labor studies, which was fundamental to the success of the investigation.
Leer en español.
CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT RESOURCE
How We Used Open Data To Report on Coastal Consequences of Climate Change in Uruguay
“From drought to floods: The impact on work in the coastal zone of Uruguay, from East to West” is the most ambitious work we have done at Amenaza Roboto, a science and technology journalism website based in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Leer en español.
CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT RESOURCE
How We Did It: Extreme Heat Is Endangering America’s Workers—And Its Economy
"But the more I dug into my reporting about heat, labor, and climate change, the more I realized that labor conditions in the countries that were producing much of that negative press were not doing much better, and in many cases, were actually much worse."
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