The Washington Post today introduces the expansion of its climate and environment journalism — a major investment of journalistic resources that reflects the scale of this global, history-defining story. The new Climate & Environment department, with more than 30 journalists, will position The Post as the world’s preeminent news organization covering climate change and its impact on humanity and the planet.
“We are reimagining climate journalism through ambitious visual storytelling and new accessible voices and coverage that will make the story more visceral and give readers ideas about how they can take action in their own lives,” said Zachary Goldfarb, Climate & Environment editor. “No story is more global, and we want our audience to know that across all our platforms, they can find the most urgent, most illuminating, and most compelling climate coverage.”
The new Climate & Environment department has five pillars of coverage: politics, policy and power; science and impacts; visual and data storytelling; climate solutions and innovations; and extreme weather coverage. In each of these, The Post’s reporting will include new storytelling styles to reach readers – especially younger, more diverse and more global readers — where they are, including on The Post’s dedicated @PostClimate Instagram account. In addition, The Post is launching:
The new work builds on The Post climate team’s record of excellence, including last year’s series on environmental justice, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in National Reporting, and 2019’s series “2C: Beyond the Limit,” which won the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting. As part of this expansion, The Post will now have reporters around the United States and around the world focused on climate change and its impacts.
“We will break down climate journalism’s often monolithic and distant tone, offering relatable, strong voices demystifying science and impacts and engaging readers on tough questions,” said Juliet Eilperin, deputy Climate & Environment editor and one of the lead authors on those two projects. “We aim to produce climate journalism that inspires, reveals spaces of innovation and provides practical advice on navigating the personal and ethical questions that people face in their own lives.”
In conjunction with Climate and Environment’s expansion, Washington Post Live will host a week-long programming series entitled “This is Climate” from December 5-9. Programming will be virtual with an exclusive in-person program on Thursday, December 8.
In recent months, The Post’s Climate hires have included: Shannon Osaka, who is focused on explanatory features about news-of-the-moment; Tim Puko, who will lead coverage of politics and policy; Brianna Sacks, who will cover extreme weather and natural disasters; Allyson Chiu, who is helping anchor our Climate Solutions vertical; and Scott Dance and Amudalat Ajasa, who are helping expand coverage of global weather. Four graphics reporters have joined the team in addition to Harry Stevens, including John Muyskens, Simon Ducroquet, Naema Ahmed and Niko Kommenda. Three editors have joined, including Katie Zezima, to lead science and impact; Stuart Leavenworth, to lead politics and policy coverage; and Monica Ulmanu, to lead visual storytelling. Several additional hires have been made in the graphics, photo and design departments, with some final positions to be filled soon.
You can find The Post’s expanded Climate and Environment coverage here.
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