Monday, Apr 21

Dear Reader,

It’s Earth Week, a time to both celebrate our incredible planet and recommit to protecting it. Earth Day, after all, was born of a crisis that was transformed into an invitation for all of us to participate in protecting our planet.

A few months ago, I checked in with a friend who lived in LA. I was glued to news of the fires and hoped she was safe. She was, and so were the many friends of hers who sought refuge in her home, which is, fortunately, in the opposite direction of where the wind was blowing flames. Of course, many weren’t so lucky and, increasingly, we learn of people we know or know of who were affected by those wildfires. Or maybe the climate disaster that (literally) hit home for you was a hurricane in Florida. Or the flooding in North Carolina. Or, like Sean Holman, a journalism professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, it was the heatwave of 2021 that killed more than 500 people and may have “baked” more than billion marine creatures. 

Holman noticed that, while media reported on the event, they often missed the connection between what happened and the larger reason it was happening: climate change. With that crucial information, he realized, we could make better choices. And so he wrote an open letter to journalists and editors, calling them out for this failure to cover the climate crisis with the urgency it deserved. 

And then, with future journalists sitting in front of him, he gave them the task of telling the personal stories of those affected. “Survivors are the knowledge bearers from the future,” he told Bluedot reporter Diane Selkirk. “They hold vital information on how we can survive climate change together.” 

The result is The Climate Disaster Project, an innovative program that trains journalists in reporting that shares the stories of those impacted in a way that recognizes the inherent trauma and can help them heal. 

Holman’s approach is backed up by data. A 2018 Yale study emphasized the value of feeling connected with the victims of climate disasters and revealed that seeing others experience the impacts of global warming had the highest correlation with people changing their opinions on climate.

Don’t miss Bluedot’s story. And scroll down for the story of a young woman who survived a wildfire in Oregon’s Frog Lake, as told to one of Holman’s journalism students. It’s a gutpunch, but deserves our attention.

Journalistically,

Dot