ONE of the problems in writing about the environment, and particularly the climate, is that it can all start to seem like abstract technobabble. A great deal of research comes in the form of opaque data and mind-boggling figures. There are a multiplicity of baffling acronyms. Headlines often deliver doom-laden warnings.

All this can be very alienating – yet it’s vital we do not switch off.

As an environmental writer, for the most part, I am looking for stories of hope that propel us towards positive change rather than those that over-emphasise doom and gloom. But I’m also keen, where truths need to be told, to deliver that difficult news. There is no room for the Pollyanna in climate coverage.

The environment, of course, isn’t some small niche area – it touches on everything. All the more so, since we now have targets and goals that mean we are going to have to transform so much of how we operate, as we shift from a fossil-fuel-based society to a low-emissions economy. What we call green, in other words, isn’t only green, but every colour.

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At The Herald, we believe it’s important to listen to a wide range of voices and include those whose lives are going to be impacted in the name of net zero or biodiversity. Industry needs its voice too. But there’s a particularly powerful role for NGOs and activist organisations. They represent the push from the edge, hope and aspiration unfettered by industry propaganda or the voices that would slow our transition down just because that would be easier and allow the eking out of more profit.

We may not, for instance, be able to instantaneously “stop oil” as the name of civil resistance group Just Stop Oil might suggest, but it’s important that organisations like this are pushing to accelerate this change and making us aware of the impact of new oil and gas field developments.

Covering the climate is also about following reports from the IPCC, the UK Climate Change Committee, think tanks, academic institutions, technical publications, and finding ways to make their messages accessible. Data is at the heart of many a story – and sometimes a small piece of data can paint a thousand words. But often it needs explaining. Often it needs a person, a lived-experience or poetic explanation, to bring life to the story.

Above all, I like to think that the job of the environmental journalist is to connect the reader to the life of which is not human. It’s to highlight and explain our entanglement with other living beings, to acknowledge the way the rest of the life we share this world with is part of our story too.

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