Newsrooms: Prepare to report on climate events

No, this isn't a mere warning that climate events are coming. I mean there are specific things you can do to prepare for them.

“Find your mango,” and 13 other things we’ve learned about how to report on climate change
Newsrooms can prepare for recurring climate events in the same way they prepare for elections or the Olympics.
Diego Arguedas Ortiz and Katherine Dunn. NiemanLab. January 4, 2024.

Accountability journalism

See this new article: "Yes, climate activism can win: Here are four different ways activists went about achieving real climate progress in 2023." Arielle Samuelson, HEATED, Jan 11, 2024

"This week, the scientific agencies of the world announced that 2023 was, by far, the hottest year in human history–and that 2024 may be even worse. ...there’s more to accountability journalism than exposing the bosses, brokers, and beneficiaries of climate delay. To truly arm readers with the information they need to fight the climate crisis, they also need to hear stories about how powerful interests can be defeated."

Samuelson's examples include:

• "The South American activists who knocked on doors to stop drilling in the Amazon" (read in The Guardian)
• "The U.K. activists who dove into bureaucracy to crack down on greenwashing" (read in ASA.org)
• "The U.S. youth activists who used the justice system to topple unjust climate policy" (read in Inside Climate News)
• "The Massachusetts community members who never gave up on offshore wind" (read in EE News.net)

Accountability?

We may be moving into a world where accountability is less possible because the world is less human.

Malka Older on Bluesky: "a large part of the *purpose* of algorithms/AI for these companies and institutions is the same as that of bureaucracy: impenetrability, deniability, the black box of processes and orders that no one can modify or countermand because there is no accountability." (January 11, 2024)

Bureaucracy (which is very old), empire, Big Oil, modern corporations in general — now AI.

On the history of bureaucracy, see the book The Demon of Writing.