Source: Salon.com
U.C. Berkeley journalists traveled the world to report on global warming.
Entire islands are being swallowed up, and the Arctic ice-shelf is melting at record levels, but of course, talk to a Republican, and they will dispel the myth of global warming while standing in former beach front property, now covered with water.
With early signs of climate change emerging, the time was right, it occurred to me, to send a team of reporters into the field to investigate. I approached colleagues at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, where I teach international reporting, and after several encouraging conversations, I determined that these early signs were sufficient for a full-scale investigation by a team of the school's reporters. Dean Orville Schell recommended we ask climatologist John Harte, of U.C.'s Energy and Resources Group, to join the team. Professor Harte readily agreed to be my co-teacher and our team's science advisor.
On Sept. 1, 2005, 12 journalists gathered for our first class, charged with finding stories in which global warming would be explored not only through the lens of science and the environment, but also in human terms: How is a warming planet starting to affect people and the lives they lead? "Early Signs: How Global Warming Affects Commerce, Culture and Community" was designed as a two-semester seminar and reporting workshop. Our task was to combine intensive study of the science, politics, economics and social impacts with active story development in regions as far-flung as the sub-Arctic, South America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and the South Pacific.
I agree--let's not take this threat seriously.
We could start a whole new cottage industry of people visiting the tropical resort islands of California and New York. Sorry, Maine and Vermont...you will probably be under water and miss out on the big payday.
Tags: [global warming], [Arctic ice-shelf], [environment]
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