Reuters has been named a finalist for four Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards, which honor the best journalists and outlets covering the climate story.
In the Writing—Long Feature category, “The Amazon’s Little Tipping Point,” by Stephen Eisenhammer, was named a finalist. Judges said “This feature follows a small, varied group of environmental caretakers — the matriarch of a farming family, a pair of ecologists, and an atmospheric chemist — who bear witness to deforestation in the Amazon. Eisenhammer takes up the notion of a ‘tipping point’ past which the rainforest will fail to sustain itself, an event that would sabotage attempts to limit global climate change. Rather than fix on one massive threshold, however, Eisenhammer reveals a number of smaller ones, some of which we may have already crossed. Shrewdly reported and intimately sourced, he points to consequences both global and hyper-local.”
In the Investigative Reporting category, Jake Spring’s investigation into the Bolsonaro government’s obstruction of environmental protections in Brazil received an honorable mention. Judges said “Even ardent climate deniers sometimes position themselves as environmental champions. Case in point: Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who mobilized his country’s military to thwart illegal deforestation in the Amazon. In this clever investigation, Spring shows that the deployment was in fact a spectacular failure, with deforestation surging even as Bolsonaro and military officials cheered their supposed accomplishments.”
“Amazon Jungle Lab,” by Jake Spring and Marco Hernandez, was named a finalist in the Multimedia category. Judges said “this piece is an elegant multimedia explainer combining text, illustrations, and photographs to reveal how scientists measure the carbon content of trees, leaves, and soil to demonstrate the importance of the Amazon rainforest to a healthy climate. Spring traveled into the jungle to report on the meticulous work of botanists, agronomists, biologists, and other forestry engineers. Theirs is rigorous and elaborate work, often in humid and insect-infested conditions, involving chainsaws, spades, corkscrews, and calipers. Hernandez turned Spring’s report into an immersive multimedia experience that is integral to the storytelling.”
In the Photography category, Hannibal Hanschke was named a finalist for “Melting Greenland.” Judges said “this series of photographs takes audiences to a place they are unlikely to see with their own eyes, a landscape on the frontlines of climate change that, because of its remoteness, is largely inaccessible. With tremendous artistry and technical skill, Hanschke has captured striated icebergs, melting glaciers, gorgeous sunsets, and, in one especially haunting image, a human graveyard filled with white crosses in the shadow of a jagged iceberg. These panoramic images capture the grandeur and isolation of the frozen reaches of our planet, a snapshot in time of a place that may soon slip away.”
The Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards are presented by Covering Climate Now, a non-profit collaboration of 500-plus news outlets co-founded by Columbia Journalism Review and the Nation and aimed at strengthening the media’s focus on the climate crisis.
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Media contact:
Heather Carpenter
Heather.Carpenter @ TR.com