Today, The Journal became a signatory to Covering Climate Now—an international coalition of more than 60 journalistic publications that have committed to covering the climate crisis with the language and urgency it deserves.
We believe strongly that journalists, editors and publishers at every level bear the responsibility to report accurately and thoroughly on how rising temperatures are impacting their communities.
The initiative, launched in April by Kyle Pope, editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, and Mark Hertsgaard, environment correspondent for The Nation, is trying to transform the way the media covers the climate crisis.
To meet the challenge in our community, The Journal will update its style guide with language to reflect the urgency of the crisis, publish roundtable discussions from students, and commit to covering climate science and innovation at our university.
We will also continue to report thoroughly on the more than $230 million Queen’s invests in fossil fuels today.
In the lead-up to the United Nations summit on September 23—called to discuss how nations can limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius—Covering Climate Now has proposed a week of climate-focused coverage across its signatory publications.
Therefore, during the week of September 16, The Journal will tell stories from around campus about the climate crisis and how it impacts our world. We will feature opinion and editorial content from your peers discussing the challenges, problems and solutions surrounding climate.
And we’re not stopping there. You’ll be able to read climate-focused reporting in The Journalall throughout Volume 147.
We won’t be able to do it alone. If you have an idea, big or small, we want to hear from you.
—Meredith Wilson-Smith and Iain Sherriff-Scott
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