The Pulitzer Center at Climate Week NYC: From Environmental Journalism to Collective Action

Climate issues are increasingly shaping decisions about infrastructure, technology, energy, natural resources, and public policy. Yet the consequences of those decisions are often experienced far from the rooms where they are made. Journalism can help bridge that gap, bringing evidence and local perspectives into global conversations while making complex environmental challenges understandable to wider and newer audiences.

For the Pulitzer Center, global climate convenings are an opportunity to connect the climate and environment reporting we support with the people and organizations working to address these challenges. At Climate Week NYC (September 21–27), we are bringing together journalists, academics, community leaders, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to explore how investigative and community-centered journalism can strengthen transparency, accountability, and governance around environmental issues. This builds on our approach to breakthrough journalism, where high-quality reporting meets engagement strategies designed to extend the reach and influence of journalism, with audiences at the center and an intentional focus on the impact it can achieve.

Through a series of events and conversations, our participation at Climate Week will examine some of the environmental questions emerging around data centers and artificial intelligence, geospatial technologies, climate innovation, and the future of environmental journalism.

How Data Center Fights Are Renewing Local Power Across the U.S.

September 22 | 5:30pm–7:30pm | Retro Report, 633 Third Avenue, 16th Floor, New York

The rapid expansion of data centers is creating a new set of environmental and governance questions around energy, water, land, infrastructure, and community decision-making. On September 22, the Pulitzer Center will join Data & Society and Retro Report for a panel moderated by Kit R. Roane, featuring Maia Woluchem, Alejandra Martinez, Brian Crawford, and Ginny Marcille-Kerslake, to examine how residents are responding to this new wave of industrial development.

Anchored by new research from Data & Society and Pulitzer Center-supported reporting from The Texas Tribune, the discussion will look at how communities are organizing, engaging media, and working with government to have a greater say in decisions that affect their environment and quality of life.

Turning Geospatial Data Into Action on Pollution and Climate

September 23 | 8:30am–1:30pm | 307 W 38th St, Manhattan, New York

Convened by SkyTruth, this working session will bring together leading voices in climate and conservation technology, including John Amos and Karl Wurster, to explore how satellite imagery, geospatial data, and other technologies can help document environmental harm and support action. The conversation will look at applications ranging from tracking ocean pollution and understanding the climate impacts of offshore oil and gas to monitoring threats to biodiversity. Jonatan Rodríguez from the Pulitzer Center will present the Amazon Mining Watch tool, created as part of the Rainforest Investigations Network program.

These tools are increasingly important to environmental journalism because they can make otherwise difficult-to-see changes visible and provide evidence for investigations and public accountability. For journalists, however, data is only the starting point: Its value lies in connecting evidence to people, institutions, and decisions that can influence what happens next.

Breakthrough Journalism: Climate Stories, Collective Action

September 24 | 10:30am–12:30pm | The World Room, Columbia Journalism School, New York City

On September 24, the Pulitzer Center, in partnership with Columbia Journalism School, will host an interactive roundtable featuring Lisa Gibbs, Flora Pereira, Duy Linh Tu, Annika McGinnis, and Isabelle Tavares to explore how environmental journalism can contribute to accountability, stronger governance, and collaboration across sectors.

The conversation will draw on journalism and engagement projects supported by the Pulitzer Center, from environmental health and biodiversity to oceans, the Amazon rainforest, and the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence. Rather than viewing journalism simply as a finished product, the session will consider how reporting, audience engagement, and community-centered approaches can help connect evidence with the people and institutions positioned to respond.

Bending the Climate Curve

September 25 | 8:30am–12:00pm | The Explorers Club, 46 E 70th St, New York

This event will bring together scientists, innovators, and journalists to examine emerging approaches to ocean-based carbon dioxide removal and the questions they raise about climate innovation, environmental governance, and responsible experimentation. Alexandra Talty, former Pulitzer Center Ocean Reporting Fellow, will moderate a panel featuring Ken Buesseler, Danielle Ringer, and Fatima Candace Vahlsing.

The session will explore the potential of these technologies while considering the safeguards, evidence, and accountability needed as they move from research toward real-world applications. Talty's participation reflects the important role environmental journalists play in scrutinizing new climate solutions, following the evidence, and bringing questions of transparency, accountability, and public interest into conversations about how we respond to the climate crisis.

Environmental journalism at the table

The Pulitzer Center’s participation reflects a model of journalism that goes beyond producing and publishing high-quality reporting. Through our engagement approach, we work with journalists to identify the audiences, communities, and decision-makers who can use their reporting, and build intentional pathways to connect stories and evidence with those who can engage with and act on them. This full engagement model strengthens transparency and governance around environmental issues. Climate Week is an important space for building these connections: between local evidence and global decision-making, journalism and engagement, and reporting and impact. Ultimately, it is about ensuring that the voices, experiences, and evidence documented through environmental journalism have a place in the conversations shaping our environmental future.