Making Climate Change Personal

The New York Times’ Energy and Environment Correspondent Coral Davenport covers environmental policy in a way that goes beyond the conventional boundaries of Washington-based reporting to the larger, all-encompassing impact of climate change issues on a human and dollars-and-cents scale.

“Climate change is a story about everything,” Davenport said at a Harvard Kennedy School seminar in February that drew a standing-room-only crowd. “There’s nothing that climate policy doesn’t touch.”

The talk was co-sponsored by the Belfer Center’s Environment and Natural Resources Program, the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics & Public Policy, the HKS Sustainability Initiative, and the HKS Energy and Environment PIC (Professional Interest Council). The event was part of a long-running speaker series, “Climate, Energy & the Media,” organized by ENRP Senior Fellow Cristine Russell. In her introduction of Davenport, Russell noted that she has “an in-depth knowledge of these issues and a fresh journalistic approach to making this meaningful on a human level.”

Davenport explained how climate change used to be perceived by the public as a distant problem, one that would only affect the Arctic and the survival of polar bears. Through her reporting, she showcases how climate change is impacting people now, combining policy issues with personal stories.

In a topic that can often be muddled with numbers and scientific reports, Davenport said her constant objective is to publish climate stories that seem more immediate and closer to home. For example, in one recent article, she focused on a struggling local business in Miami affected by storm surges and sea level rise.

See the full article and video here.