How can journalists tell climate stories from a local point of view?

In-person meeting – Friday, 27 January 2023 from 3.45 to 7 PM (CET), Bern

We’ll meet in person for the first time and discuss the challenges and opportunities for climate journalists working for local news outlets. The session is kindly hosted by the online magazine Hauptstadt in Bern.

We’re happy to have three guests who will share their insights with us in a panel discussion lasting about 90 minutes: Isabel Brun, Patrick Gasser and Florent Hiard.

Isabel is a climate journalist for the Zurich-based online magazine Tsüri.ch and reports at irregular intervals on climate issues that concern Switzerland’s largest city. Once a month she tries to broaden her view — because Zurich is not the centre of the world — and summarises striking, sad, important, or shocking news about the climate crisis in a briefing. (Always on the verge of losing hope.)

Patrick is an editor at the Walliser Bote newspaper in Visp. Growing up as a farmer’s child, he studied journalism at the MAZ in Luzern and graduated in 2015. He now lives in Saas-Fee, where he witnesses the effects of climate change on a daily basis. Hence, he’s interested in meteorological and climate topics in the canton of Valais.

Florent is a journalist and is in charge of the web edition of the Nyon-based newspaper La Côte. As a former research assistant in geosciences and a science and geography teacher, he jumped into journalism in 2019, addressing environmental stories through their scientific, economic and political aspects.

The panel discussion will be held in English and will take place at Hauptstadt’s premises at Belpstrasse 53, 3007 Bern – a 10-minute walk from the train station.

After the panel discussion, Prof. Dr. Andreas Zischg will lead us on a 60-minute climate-themed walk through Bern. He will break down the expected climatic changes in the local context of Bern and discuss how they affect wellbeing and ongoing transformation processes. Zischg is a professor of modelling for human-environmental systems at the University of Bern. He also co-directs the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks at the university’s Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, where he studies the interactions between environmental changes, natural risks and societal transformations.

To take part in our climate journalism afternoon, please email us at info@climatejournalism.ch

We’ll finish our meeting with dinner and drinks for anyone interested. (Unfortunately, we cannot cover the costs, but we can provide fun and laughter.) For those joining us for dinner, please RSVP by Monday, 23 January 2023, so we can make a reservation.

Our meetings are for professional journalists (and journalism students) only.

For existing members of the network: We start at 3 PM with an internal meeting.

Please spread the word. We look forward to seeing you!

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How can journalists use satellite images to investigate and visualise the climate crisis?

Find out in our 2nd session on Thursday, November 10th 2022, from 12.30 to 1.30 PM (CET) via Zoom. Our guests are Adina Renner and Edward Boyda.

Adina is a visual data journalist with the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). With data, design, and code, Adina connects people and subjects that matter. One of her latest investigations: how palm oil threatens protected rainforest in Indonesia.

Edward is managing partner at Earthrise Media. He is a physicist, educator, satellite investigator, and data scientist. Edward taught the NASA quantum computer to find Californian trees in satellite imagery. And he teamed up with Reuters reporters to investigate how China’s largest freshwater lake was decimated by sand mining.

To take part in our second lunchtime talk, please join our newsletter; we will send out the Zoom link on the morning of the 15th. Our meetings are for professional journalists (and journalism students) only. Please spread the word. We look forward to seeing you! (The meeting was postponed from the original date Sept. 15th, 2022)

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First meeting – June 29th, 2022: 12.30 – 1.30 PM