CEJ in Focus

Accomplished journalists join newest class of Scripps Fellows

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 04:02:53 +0000

Accomplished journalists join newest class of Scripps Fellows Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 07/28/2024 - 22:02

Iris Serrano

The Center for Environmental Journalism at the �鶹��Ƶ has named five exceptional journalists to its 2024-25 class of Ted Scripps Fellows in Environmental Journalism.

“This year’s terrific incoming class of Ted Scripps Fellows hails from around the country and works across multiple platforms, including photography, podcasts, documentary, long-form narrative and daily news,” said Hillary Rosner, assistant director of the Center for Environmental Journalism—which oversees the Scripps Fellows program—and a teaching assistant professor at CMCI. “Together, they bring decades of experience and expertise to CU Boulder, where they will learn from university researchers and share their knowledge with the community.”

Established in 1993, the Ted Scripps Fellowship has been based at the �鶹��Ƶ since 1997. The program, which is supported by a grant from the Scripps Howard Fund, aims to give full-time journalists working in any medium the knowledge and tools to report on today’s pressing environmental issues in ways that resonate with diverse audiences. Over a nine-month period, fellows attend classes at the �鶹��Ƶ, participate in weekly seminars and field trips, and pursue their own journalistic projects on a wide range of environmental topics.

The incoming class includes:

Steven Bedard, co-founder and editor, BioGraphic. Bedard has spent the last 25 years writing and producing science stories on everything from archaeology to evolution. During the fellowship, he will explore how species are responding to global change, looking at the intersection between systems-scale events and the individual organisms’ biology.

Taylor Dolven, reporter, The Boston Globe. Dolven focuses on how transportation intersects with climate change and economic inequality. Previously, as a reporter at the Miami Herald, she exposed how cruise companies kept workers at sea without pay during the pandemic. As a fellow, Dolven will research how Americans’ reliance on cars and the transition to electric vehicles impacts lithium-rich communities in South America.

Catherine (Cat) Jaffee, founder and audio producer, House of Pod. Jaffee will spend her fellowship developing an audio series that explores how both ecosystems and human bodies repair themselves, and how overlapping biomedical and bioengineered solutions apply to both. Jaffee has produced more than 1,000 podcast episodes for outlets such as PBS and National Geographic.

Neeta Satam, independent photojournalist. Satam is an Indian photojournalist and National Geographic explorer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post and elsewhere. As a fellow, she will expand a long-term project that documents the impact of climate change on a community in the Himalayas, with an emphasis on gender inequity.

Leah Varjacques, visual journalist and documentary producer. Varjacques has produced and edited digital and television documentaries for The New York Times, The Atlantic and Vice News, where she won an Emmy in 2021. She plans to study climate adaptation and human geography to produce a short documentary about the impacts of Indonesia's future capital city on East Borneo's Indigenous people.

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Former Fellow Documents Environmental Crimes in Brazil

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 21:32:53 +0000

Former Fellow Documents Environmental Crimes in Brazil Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/18/2024 - 15:32

Devin Farmiloe

When Sasha Chavkin came to the Ted Scripps Fellowship in 2021, he was interested in exploring how crime and corruption is fueling climate change. After constructing an independent study that included a rigorous amount of reading and research, Chavkin came to a conclusion: illegal deforestation is the largest contributor to climate change among criminal activities. In addition, Chavkin found that the majority of products obtained from illegal deforestation were going to China. “As of about five years ago, there was more deforestation embodied in international trade going to China than to the United States and European Union combined,” Chavkin said.

This led Chavkin to produce two articles. One covered PMI food systems, an American meat trader that primarily ships beef from Brazil to China and had links to illegal deforestation in its supply chain. The other was about a Chinese state-owned food importer, Cofco, and its link to illegal deforestation through soy and palm oil imports.

During his field reporting, Chavkin found that some sources had such a drastically different worldview that they didn’t bother trying to hide their role in illegal deforestation. One plantation owner who sold soy to Cofco was criminally deforesting, and Cofco continued to purchase soy from him. This violates the soy moratorium, which is a promise by companies to not buy soy from farmers that illegally clear forest.

When Chavkin visited the plantation, he expected the owner to put up some resistance. “I was worried he was going to kick me off his property,” Chavkin said. “I just started talking to him and hadn't even brought up the question of the soy moratorium violation. I just asked him about Cofco, and he volunteered that he was working with Cofco. Like, ‘They're great. They're still buying from me, even though these other companies stopped buying from me because I violated the soybean moratorium.’” In the end, the plantation owner said he would only abide by Brazilian law, and the soy moratorium was separate from Brazilian law.

In some cases, such as the article about PMI Foods, Chavkin’s investigations pave the way for meaningful change. The article uncovers how an American meat trader that has shipped massive quantities of Brazilian beef to China has avoided scrutiny for enabling Amazon deforestation. After the story was published by the Associated Press, PMI Foods joined industry working groups on sustainability, promised to plant a million trees, and said it would consider a pledge against rainforest destruction.

“PMI admitted that it needed to change its practices,” Chavkin said “I don't think it has gotten very far in actually making those changes yet. But I think it was important to draw attention to PMI’s role, because it's a major American company that completely avoided scrutiny.”

Despite PMI dragging its feet, Chavkin’s goal in his reporting was clear from the start: He wants to hold companies accountable. “I want to make corporate practices better,” Chavkin said. “I want to help communities that are harmed by abuses and environmental harms. I think the way we do that is by putting the truth out there.”

*Photo credit: Giovanny Vera/Pulitzer Center

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Five Questions for the Fellows: Clifton Wiens

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 19:43:10 +0000

Five Questions for the Fellows: Clifton Wiens Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/18/2024 - 13:43

Devin Farmiloe

The Ted Scripps Fellowships have been bringing award-winning environmental journalists to CU Boulder for 27 years. Fellows embark on a year of courses, projects, field trips, seminars and more— taking advantage of everything university life has to offer. This series is a chance to get to know this year’s cohort of talented journalists beyond what a typical bio page will tell you.

Prior to being a Scripps Fellow, Clifton Wiens was a writer and filmmaker with National Geographic, where he worked on documentaries such as “Strange Days on Planet Earth,” which focuses on the climate crisis around the globe, as well as Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel.” During the fellowship, Wiens is developing a documentary film exploring the apocalyptic impulse in American culture and how such beliefs and attitudes influence the politics and policy related to climate change and other environmental issues.

Could you tell me a little bit about your fellowship project?

The elevator pitch for my project is Mad Max meets Billy Graham: The film is an archival project that examines American religious and secular culture over the last one hundred years through the lens of the apocalyptic strain in both of these worlds, and how this apocalyptic impulse is particularly dangerous right now at this time in U.S. history. It leads to apathy, to fatalism, or for some to escapist expectations.

By apocalyptic I mean an expectation that the world’s end is coming soon, whether through natural or supernatural means.

So I’m going through enormous amounts of film footage from really the beginning of film as a medium until now. It’s quite a range of material, from tent meeting evangelists to secular apocalyptic mainstream films.

I’m interested, in part, in how the apocalyptic style in American life and politics has now become dominant within at least one of America's major political parties, and how this cultural strand is becoming more overt in national politics, but perhaps more importantly, how the apocalyptic tradition manifests in voters’ attitudes across the political spectrum.

What led you to this line of research?

A couple of factors, at least. I grew up in a culture where, as a kid, I was surrounded by this idea that the world was going to end soon. And then when the pandemic began, the uncertainty surrounding a vaccine at first made for a lot of television and radio chatter that related sometimes tangentially, sometimes specifically to apocalyptic expectations. These expectations can be positive or negative, depending on a person’s beliefs and culture.

If you think that you're either going to escape through some supernatural means or the world's going to end and we are all doomed, your concern for the world beyond your own small world tends to be very limited. Fatalistic beliefs and escapist beliefs are equally dangerous.

Part of my objective with this archival film is to make a broader audience aware of this apocalyptic strand in American culture which is sometimes subtle. We don’t need a Mad Max scenario for society to collapse.

Switching gears, how has your time in the fellowship been so far?

It's been great. It took a bit of time to adjust to being around others after being solitary in the mountains or other lonely landscapes during the peak pandemic years.

My fellow fellows and everyone that is part of the CEJ, including the fellowship’s directors, have made that transition from solitude to society beautiful.

The field trips and the seminars are always a highlight of the week, such as the first field trip in the fall semester, when we trekked through Boulder cemeteries, creeks, and the town’s century-plus old ditches with legendary western water expert Bob Crifasi. It’s a different water world in the West than east of the Mississippi River in ways I never understood until Bob’s walking seminar.

I love being on a campus, wandering the corridors of the Norlin Library at random, and pulling books off a shelf that catch my eye.

You took a little bit of a different approach from most fellows and designed your own syllabus the first semester. Could you tell me how that is going?

For me, developing my own syllabus for one of my courses was freeing and enlightening. I wanted to do an independent study that examines the monotheistic world’s concepts of linear time, utopias, and apocalypses from the era of Alexander the Great until the present. Alexander and the Hellenistic era still influence our worldviews in the West more than most people realize. So my self-designed course is entitled “Time, Utopia, and Apocalypse in the Monotheistic World from Alexander the Great to The Anthropocene.” I’m happy to supply the syllabus to anyone who is interested.

Lastly, what do you like to do outside of journalism?

I absolutely love the mountains, long treks, and the occasional summit of a Fourteener. Backpacking, bicycling, anything that can take me out of myself and into nature is what inspires me. And Colorado, of course, is one of the great places in the world for that. I love music from classical to alt-country to punk. One day it’s Bach, the next it’s Iggy Pop.The next Max Richter and Maria Callas. The next day Patti Smith. And Dylan. Always Bob Dylan. I love dogs and during the pandemic I spent many weeks caring for other people’s pets and dogs in whatever state I happened to be in. I still do that occasionally and have a few favorite animals and people I’ve come to know around Boulder, though I won’t mention any names.

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Five Questions for the Fellows: Ishan Thakore

Anonymous — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 15:31:14 +0000

Five Questions for the Fellows: Ishan Thakore Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 02/17/2024 - 08:31

Devin Farmiloe

Before becoming a Ted Scripps Fellow, Ishan Thakore worked as a multimedia producer and investigative journalist. During his career, Thakore has been the recipient of IRE’s Journalist of Color Fellowship, a Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship, and a BBC/Sundance Institute Fellowship. Thakore’s work can be seen in THE CITY, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Netflix, the BBC, National Geographic blogs, and Al Jazeera.

During the fellowship, you’re reporting on the Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to protect New York from storm surges. Could you tell me a little bit more about that?

In 2012, Superstorm Sandy took this pretty gnarly left turn into the city and knocked out a lot of neighborhoods for a while, and flooded a bunch of subway tunnels. That was 11 years ago, and it's not clear that the city has made enough progress to prevent a freak storm like that from happening again. And in the 11 years since Superstorm Sandy, there have been what the city calls “significant rainfall events,” where we've gotten a ton of rain in four hours, and a lot of homes and basement apartments get flooded. There are all these weather challenges that we're facing in New York, and the city has this unique kind of topography also–it's like a series of islands and has these protected bays, and the Hudson runs through it. But that also means there's a lot of water that can quickly rush into the city and a lot of people want to live on the water because it's beautiful. But as New York looks to the future, there's this sense that if it doesn't prepare now, what's going to happen?

The Army Corps is the premier U.S. institution that builds large infrastructure projects. There are all these laws that dictate why the Army Corps can dam rivers and build levees and stuff. At the same time, there's a lot of criticism towards the Corps because historically, they've been very much a gray infrastructure agency, like, “Let's pour some concrete,” “Let's build a seawall,” “Let's engineer our way out of nature's periodic problems,” and that's proven to be really challenging. The reason I'm fascinated by this story is that New York combines all these elements: it's the future-looking strategy of the Corps as climate change becomes more prevalent, the historical past of how the Corps has built things, and also, how the richest, biggest city in America, has a choice to make on how it'll protect itself. People have a lot of opinions about this because everyone agrees that the city shouldn’t flood, but there's not that much agreement about what can be done.

When the Army Corps released its plan last year, there was a lot of criticism about how it was short-sighted and how it didn't account for different types of storms. You know, one source told me, when the project is done in 2045, it “would be horrible to get a screwdriver when we really needed a wrench.” What she meant was that, if we're going to spend all this time building something, it should work for the myriad problems that are going to exist in New York.

What led you to this line of research?

I was having a beer with a friend and he was telling me about his friend who was advocating against a huge wall in the Hudson River to protect the city from storm surges. I just laughed. If you look at Jersey City from Battery Park, it's not that far, you know, and we're gonna build this vertical wall, how is that even gonna work? I thought it was one of the craziest things I've ever heard. Then I talked to his friend later, and this isn’t just one wall, it is actually a series of walls and gates and some of the most intense engineering that would be done around a coastal city in the U.S. That just kind of captivated me because I’ve always been interested in this idea of how we try to tame nature and how it goes poorly.

It is very clear that you love New York. How are you enjoying Boulder and your time in the fellowship so far?

It's such a nice change of pace to do weekend trips. It’s so much harder in New York to go anywhere. I've really been enjoying the outdoors. I've been to Rocky Mountain National Park and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and it's been fantastic. It was a bit of an adjustment to settle back into being a student again because it's such a different schedule. I felt a little unmoored with all this free time, like, what am I supposed to do? Or how am I supposed to best use it? And now I feel much more settled.

What is your favorite class so far?

I've been taking French, which has been really fun. And oceanography, which is getting me to appreciate the ocean much more. And then two law classes that are much more technical, but they complement each other quite well.

What do you like to do outside of journalism?

I love to go hiking, so moving to Boulder has been a great boost for the hobbies that I've been able to only sporadically indulge in when I was in New York. I really like playing sports. I've been able to play tennis here a couple of times, which is nice. In New York, I would have to wake up at six am and sign my name onto a clipboard, so that I could come back seven hours later to play. It was absolutely insane. Here I can just roll up to a court and play with a friend.

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Five Questions for the Fellows: Rebecca Halleck

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 21:28:32 +0000

Five Questions for the Fellows: Rebecca Halleck Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/28/2023 - 14:28

Devin Farmiloe

As a senior editor for The New York Times, Rebecca Halleck contributed to coverage of COVID-19, extreme weather events, policing, and racial justice protests. Prior to her work with The Times, she was a digital editor at the Chicago Tribune. During her fellowship year, Halleck will examine the legal and policy frameworks surrounding climate change and climate action.

Halleck sat down with CEJ graduate assistant Devin Farmiloe to talk about her work and experience as a fellow.

Could you tell me a bit more about your fellowship project?

When I came into the fellowship, I was really focused on climate litigation, specifically the case Held v. Montana. The premise of that case is that children are suing the government on the basis that they will not have the constitutional right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness because of climate change. I was also interested in the political momentum behind states passing environmental rights amendments or adding similar language to their constitutions.

But the two law classes I’m taking made me realize that the outcome of the Montana case, while positive for the youth plaintiffs, is actually quite limited in scope. It was a state case, so it only applies within the state of Montana and it doesn’t have any direct impact on emissions. It merely allows state entities to consider climate change when making policy decisions.

So since arriving at CU, I’ve become much more interested in examining the full legal landscape – policy, market-based solutions, litigation – surrounding climate change and related environmental concerns.

What led you to this line of research?

I think I’ve always been interested in how laws and the legal system intersect with the real-life problems they seek to fix. For better or worse, I think there are infinite stories — both good and bad — to be told about how public policy reacts to and shapes society. And when you combine that with something as complex and pressing as the climate crisis, as a reporter it just felt like the most important topic at the most important time. Like we’re on a precipice and the way our legal system responds, the way our policies are written, will create new winners and losers. As journalists, how we cover that in real-time as it unfolds is absolutely vital.

That sounds like a lot of heavy knowledge to grapple with. Are you enjoying your time in the fellowship so far?

I'm loving it. I really like all the activities; the guest speakers and field trips are really fun. The crew we have here is really nice too. I was afraid that I wouldn't have any friends and that I would be really lonely here, but we are like a family. That's been really great. I've also been really excited about the number of experts and professors on campus who are willing to give their time. The classes that I get to take are great too. I've been telling people this is the most fun version of school I've ever gotten to do because I don't have to do the assignments, but I get to do the learning.

What are your two favorite classes?

I am taking environmental law as well as climate change law and policy and I like both of them for different reasons. Environmental law has done a really good job of explaining how we got to this moment, especially in terms of climate legislation and litigation. But then climate change law and policy are more future-focused. It's like, what's coming up? What are the avenues still available for reducing emissions? What kind of policies are actually working? They're very different.

The interesting thing that I wasn't expecting is that in these law classes, there are actually a fair number of students who aren't law students at all. They come in with a scientific or engineering background, so they can kind of explain that half of it. And then there are law students that are actually already interning really interesting places like the EPA, and so they can add some additional backstory. The other students have been kind of a big surprise like I expected to really be interested in what the professors had to say. But the other students have been a resource as well.

What do you like to do outside journalism?

I love hiking. That's one of the best things about being here in Boulderyou just walk out your door and there's a trail. I love reading. So having some time to read fiction and nonfiction that's not related to any work I'm doing has been really nice. When you're working in a newsroom, you feel like all you have time to do is read the news. When you're a little bit separated from that news cycle, you actually have time to read for learning's sake, which has been really nice.

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Five Questions for the Fellows: Kara Fox

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 20:46:22 +0000

Five Questions for the Fellows: Kara Fox Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 11/17/2023 - 13:46

Devin Farmiloe

Kara Fox is a visual journalist and digital producer whose work has taken her across the globe. Fox has reported on women's issues, geopolitics, culture and corruption from Bhutan, Cambodia, Myanmar, Haiti and most recently the UK. As a digital producer with CNN International, Fox crafted features about alternative youth movements in Putin's Russia, LGBTQ+ people in Turkey, and the plight of Rwandan dissidents. During her fellowship year Fox plans to explore how the climate crisis disproportionately impacts women.

Fox sat down with CEJ graduate assistant Devin Farmiloe to talk about her work and experience as a fellow.

Your fellowship project is covering how climate change disproportionately impacts women. Could you tell me a little bit more about that line of inquiry?

We know that women and girls disproportionately bear the brunt of the climate emergency, and research shows that reproductive justice is a key element of climate change mitigation and adaptation. But international and national frameworks on climate change are failing to take adequate action, with few stories dedicated to the gendered impact of climate change. So, I’d like to be a part of that change. My research is focused on three broad categories so far: how climate change affects maternal mortality, reproductive justice and how it affects gender-based violence. I’m also looking into how extractive industries fuel gender based violence, and querying whether the green transition will also present those same problems. While we know anecdotally that climate change is drastically affecting these aspects of women's lives globally, with some new research emerging in this space, especially in the Global South. However, there’s not nearly enough comprehensive studies into just how badly things like the rise of sea levels or the warming of our Earth are really affecting women in every aspect of their lives. I'm finding many researchers that say that there's this study and that study, but that there’s just not enough data available quite yet, or that they haven’t necessarily placed a gendered lens on their research. My hope is that I'm going to be able to partner with academics and scientists that are interested in further looking into the intersectionality of climate and gender and to harness the data that is available into a body of work that helps folks connect the dots on these issues, especially here in the United States.

What was your inspiration behind this topic?

A lot of my reporting in the geopolitical space focuses on women’s issues and movements around gender equity. It seemed like a natural progression for me to apply an intersectional feminist framework in writing or researching stories around climate change and environmental justice. Women are often an afterthought in a lot of scientific circles and still in a lot of journalism circles. We are not at the forefront of research, even though we are often leaders of initiatives aimed at transforming societies. It is a complete disservice to women and other minority populations if we don't put them at the forefront of this conversation around climate change. We live in this world, and our right to self-determination and empowerment is crucial for the sustainability of our planet. It's imperative to study how climate change is affecting women - and if those studies don't exist then to put it to scientists and to put it to researchers to start making this a priority. I'm hopeful that dialogue during this fellowship will do that.

How has your fellowship been so far?

It has been extraordinary. In all of my years reporting, being out in the field, or being in an office, I've never felt so excited or engaged as I have in these last six weeks. I can say that with all honesty. I've been able to take time away from the daily pressure of a newsroom job, which is wonderful, but not just because there's no pressure here that's imposed by someone else but because the pressure is on myself to explore a topic that interests and engages me and, to hopefully create work that sparks change. It’s a gift to be able to explore things that I’m interested in but wouldn’t have an opportunity to delve into deeply. Right now I'm taking five classes, which is a little oversubscribed, but I like that three of the classes are directly complementing each other in terms of climate science and environmental science. I'm really enjoying the overlap. It's really nice to be able to take time to really ingest these big-picture ideas so as to get better at articulating them to the wider public in the future. It feels really empowering. It's also really exciting to be able to work among and collaborate with the other fellows -- we all come from such disparate backgrounds, but we complement each other so well. I think that's part of the strength of the program, to be able to share ideas and develop concepts for your project, but also to talk about the things that you're learning. I can physically feel an expansion of my brain right now in a way that I haven't before.

What is your favorite class, or maybe top two if you cannot choose?

My Ancient Astronomies of the World class is fantastic. More than half of the lectures are taught in the planetarium, which is just neat, overall, but the reason that I love it is because it's not just a class about looking at the stars or examining the stars, the planets, and how the stars and the planets affect what's happening here on Earth, but shows us the historical context for why cultures and people did things that they did. This allows me to reflect on how light pollution is not allowing people today to enjoy the night sky - and why that matters. Because of light pollution, people today are not engaging with the stars, because we can't see them, we can't see what's happening. So things that our ancestors did, anything from creating sundials, to calendars to Polynesian navigation, those sorts of things that they did because they had this big, bright sky, were so extraordinary. I feel that we're missing out on learning about how that part of our world affects us and what we could do with it. I've also really been enjoying my Introduction to Oceanography class that I'm taking, which just spells out everything from how we began our first life on Earth, to how the oceans are carbon sinks and how adding CO2 to our atmosphere is affecting our oceans and therefore our world. It's been really cool.

What do you enjoy doing outside of journalism?

Being in the ocean, swimming and diving. We're in a landlocked place though, so I love climbing and I love being in the mountains. It's great to be able to explore some of these mountains while I'm here -- (even if it's just at the foothills with my kids). Especially in the context of studying about how these mountains were formed, which is what I'm doing in some of my other classes.

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Five Questions for the Fellows: Elliot Ross

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 19:55:28 +0000

Five Questions for the Fellows: Elliot Ross Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/23/2023 - 13:55

Devin Farmiloe

Elliot Ross is an American photojournalist who tells stories of the American West through long-term projects that follow the individual threads that make up the tapestry of our communities, landscapes, and cultures. During his fellowship, Ross plans to investigate the water crisis unfolding across the Western United States. Ross’s work can be seen in National Geographic, The New York Times, and The New Yorker.

Ross sat down with CEJ graduate assistant Devin Farmiloe to talk about his work and experience as a fellow.

Your photo journalism has focused primarily on the cultural geography of the American West. Could you tell me a bit about how you see the climate crisis impacting this landscape?

It's impacting every level of society. I think there are two important considerations that have driven my practice and I feel I have a responsibility to contribute. I see climate change impacting Western America through equity issues: Who has the ability to thrive, and who is being more disenfranchised than ever? I see that the gap is widening between those who have and those who don't. And the other way, which is related and they inform one another, is access to resources and specifically how climate change impacts hydrology and where water goes and where it does not go, and who within our legal and societal framework has access to that water. I’m interested in reexamining institutions that have led to the paradigm in which we exist today. I think climate change doesn't necessarily change social order, but rather it exacerbates and heightens the divisions and issues that we have already.

What is a photo story that has informed your reporting on this topic?

One project that has had an outsized influence on my relationship to photography is an ongoing project in the Inupiat village of Shishmaref located in Northwest Alaska, above the Bering Strait. This indigenous community is facing an existential threat as the waters of one of the world’s most violent stretches of ocean rise around their quarter-mile-wide barrier island. In the 1930’s, indigenous across the American West, Canada and Alaska were forcibly settled through a brutal campaign of cultural genocide by their respective governments. Prior to that, this area was Inupiat hunting ground for millennia, but due to its exposure, never a place to live year-round. With warming, rising oceans and a lack of protection by pack ice that no longer forms in time for October’s storm season, this island with a high point of just 14 feet above sea level, places Shishmaref in a very precarious position. All it would take is one significant storm event to completely inundate this community that has no means of escape.

For the last four years, I've been traveling back and forth, living with one family. Over time, I’ve witnessed the physical disintegration of the community–buildings, homes and roads succumbing to the ocean. I’ve also seen the strength and character of community leaders, and the incredible resilience born from their culture and the tightness of village life. When thinking about my practice, this experience has given me so much humility. Humility born from the experience of living in someone's home, and the generosity my hosts extend to me despite the small mistakes I make and the imposition of my presence. My hope is that my photography exudes the grace, dignity and humanity that has been given to me by the people of Shishmaref. I’ve learned that it’s through these human qualities that I have the best chance of connecting with a broader, global audience on this difficult and remote issue. Shishmaref has allowed me to grow in a safe space both as a journalist and a human.

Speaking of a safe space to learn, how have you been enjoying your time in the fellowship so far?

It's been such a gift. While at times I do feel adrift in the hormonal sea that is campus life, mostly I'm feeling invigorated by the amount of energy here; a frequency of energy that only comes from an inspired learning environment. It's really incredible sinking into this place as I never had a true collegiate experience at art school. The amount of support that we have through CEJ and CU faculty has been so helpful and inspiring. Sharing this time with my four fellow fellows, all going through these new experiences together, has been such a joy. You should see our WhatsApp thread… it bubbles with the enthusiasm of a new crush.

What is your favorite class so far?

My favorite class, hands down, is called Colorado River Water Crisis, which is right up my alley. The educator, Martin Hoerling, recently retired from an illustrious career at NOAA brings that deep experience into the classroom. Hoerling is able to convey difficult concepts and articulate nuance within contentious issues through his deep well of knowledge. But also, again, it comes down to my peers. Within this small class, there are a handful of subject experts from institutions like the Bureau of Reclamation, Denver Water as well as other professors. So the conversation that happens on an organic level is really interesting too.

What do you do outside of journalism?

As cliche as it sounds, I love to explore. I love diving into my physical surroundings. Every evening here in Boulder, you’ll find me walking around eyes wide, following my curiosity and engaging with random people. Just last night, I shared supper with a man who sat across from me at the Bavarian beer hall, as I was eating my schnitzel. He was also alone, here for work, as he built a quantum computing lab for Google. We had a really interesting conversation surrounding AI and the ceiling of the technology that he believes we’ve already hit. The same curiosity goes for when I'm in the wilderness. I love spending time in my beloved canyon country of the Southwest. Each mile spent walking through these landscapes is like reading the most illuminating chapter you've ever read. There's so much to learn, from the ecology, to the geomorphology, to the atmosphere overhead, and the artifacts underfoot that reveal a deep lineage of humanity.

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Five Questions for the Fellows: Gulnaz Khan

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 18:41:57 +0000

Five Questions for the Fellows: Gulnaz Khan Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/01/2023 - 11:41

Devin Farmiloe

The Ted Scripps Fellowships have been bringing award-winning environmental journalists to CU Boulder for 26 years. Fellows embark on a year of courses, projects, field trips, seminars and more— taking advantage of everything university life has to offer. This series is a chance to get to know this year’s cohort of talented journalists beyond what a typical bio page will tell you.

Gulnaz Khan is the climate editor at TED and a former editor at National Geographic. Her work appears in Popular Science, The Economist, National Geographic, POLITICO Europe, AFAR, and more. During her fellowship year, Khan is examining the relationship between religion and climate change, including the role of religious institutions in social movements, and faith-based responses to ecological crises.

Khan sat down with CEJ graduate assistant Devin Farmiloe to talk about her work and experience as a fellow.

You're currently working on a project that explores the relationship between religion and the environment. What was your initial inspiration for the project?

While I was researching another story, I came across an old magazine article from the 1950s or ’60s, and was immediately captivated by a series of black and white photographs of a religious pilgrimage in the Himalayas. Every summer, thousands of devout Hindu pilgrims go on an arduous trek through the high mountain passes of Kashmir to Amarnath Cave, where an ice stalagmite forms. The ice is considered lingam, or a physical manifestation of Shiva – one of the most powerful deities in the Hindu pantheon. When I looked deeper, I learned that because of climatic changes in recent years, pilgrims have made the journey to Amarnath only to find that the ice melted or hadn’t formed at all – and this is devastating. Many of them believe that Shiva is withholding blessings because humans are not caring for the earth as they should.

And the melting ice isn’t just significant for religious communities – Himalayan glaciers feed several of Asia’s largest rivers, which nourish more than a billion people. So climate change has profound consequences for the entire region, both spiritually and physically.

Could you tell me a little bit about the research that you have found through this line of inquiry?

Like the rituals at Amarnath, nature has played a central role in religious traditions throughout the ages. Ancient civilizations made sacrifices to gods that controlled the seasons, Jesus was baptized in a river, the Buddha meditated under a Bodhi tree. Today, the same extremes that threaten billions of lives — drought, famine, sea level rise, extreme weather — also endanger humanity’s most sacred sites and traditions. And my central question is whether appealing to people through the lens of faith can catalyze meaningful change where scientific and economic explanations have failed to mobilize action.

For better or worse, religion is one of the most powerful social forces in human history. These are institutions that wield significant political and economic power. Many of them also emphasize the sanctity of the natural world, both as a symbol of the divine and facilitator of life – how that’s actually put into practice looks very different around the world. But one thing is clear – that as we grapple with an unprecedented era of environmental degradation, we’re seeing religious communities everywhere organizing around climate change in some really exciting and innovative ways that we can all learn from.

The fellowship is a little bit of a different pace from what I imagine your life is like as a TED editor, or being an editor at National Geographic. How have you been finding your time in the fellowship?

It's been wonderful. Having the time to explore a story more deeply without the daily demands of a newsroom is really gratifying. It makes for richer, more nuanced stories, and you discover so many new connections. There's this go go go mentality in journalism, often out of necessity, but it doesn't always allow time for more in-depth reporting. And then being able to connect with a group of super thoughtful, talented journalists to share and process what we’re learning has been incredible.

What has your favorite class been so far?

During the fall semester I really enjoyed my screenwriting class, taught by Shaylynn Lesinski in Media Studies. I come from a writing and editing background, but I found that thinking through writing for screens is a completely different process than what I normally do. Writing something that's going to be watched versus read exercised new creative muscles. It’s also a concrete skill that I can take with me beyond this, which feels really valuable when I think about possible career trajectories.

This semester I’m also taking a fantastic course on Islamic Mysticism, or Sufism, taught by Aun Ali in the Religious Studies department. It’s been so refreshing and thought-provoking – I feel my mind expanding in the most unexpected ways.

What do you like to do outside of journalism?

I love cultural and nature-based travel, getting outside, exploring new places – I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the endless mountain vistas here in Boulder. I also love books and film. I'm a big fantasy and science fiction fan, and think cli-fi’s growing popularity is fascinating for obvious reasons. There are so many beautiful and creative ways to tell stories, explore big questions, and express our humanity – I’m here for all of it.

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Five Questions for the Fellows: Mercy Orengo

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 17:40:16 +0000

Five Questions for the Fellows: Mercy Orengo Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/21/2023 - 10:40

Devin Farmiloe

Mercy Orengo is a features reporter and has primarily focused on human interest stories in Africa. Orengo was a longform reporter for The Standard, the longest-standing newspaper in Kenya. Reporting for The Standard, she wrote on topics like how climate solutions have been used to reduce intertribal conflict and how research gaps can interfere with climate solutions. During her fellowship, Orengo has been exploring new avenues of environmental reporting in hopes of finding a medium that is accessible to the Kenyan public.

Orengo sat down with CEJ graduate assistant Devin Farmiloe to talk about her work and experience as a fellow.

Your past work dealt a lot with climate and climate change. One of the things you have worked on recently that I am interested in is the research gaps in Africa that are hindering the continent's participation in climate solutions. Could you tell me some more about that line of inquiry?

I've done a lot of climate change stories, but in a broader perspective. After I graduated, and just as I was applying for the Scripps fellowship, I thought about climate reporting in the Global South. I started doing independent research on some of the body of work that has been done by journalists and researchers. One of the things that I found was that women are disproportionately represented in climate change conversations, especially in the Global South. That is in both journalistic work and those championing climate change issues. You don't hear a lot of women's voices. If it's a global story, you rarely see the Global South, especially Africa, being quoted independently or being quoted as progressive. Most of the time when we are writing about climate change in Africa, it's always about how Africa still lags behind. Yet Africa is rarely included in conversations about climate change.

During your time in the fellowship, you are working on ways to use new media to help promote climate stories in Kenya, and potentially Africa as a whole. How is that going?

Looking at the media in Kenya, climate change issues rarely make it to the front page. That's because our papers and newsrooms are mostly political, or they just think that climate change issues aren't as close to home as other continents. I want to approach that. I'm thinking of creating a space to highlight some of the climate change issues, and especially how climate change affects people at the grassroots level, because most of the time when climate change issues make it in the newspaper, it's always policy-based. But we rarely look at how that then affects the farmer in the village. How does this affect women? Who determines the kind of fuel we'll be using to light up the house or to cook? I want to break down climate change issues in a way that people can read and identify that this is a climate change story, and it affects someone who is beyond a policymaker.

I always find it interesting that when issues of global warming or climate change are being discussed, people don't focus so much on Africa. Yet the impact is being felt so much in Africa, but since the attention hasn't been there, the mitigation is not there. Even the most basic things haven't been embedded in the culture, because for a long time, it's been ignored. So while major stakeholders were focusing on the US and Europe, because they were the mass producers of pollutants, the effects of that were being felt in Africa and in nations of the Global South. But since the focus wasn't there, the mitigation was not put there. It means then that the impact that they're feeling doesn't even have a place where someone can say “these are some of the things that are being done to prevent that.” So we are having diseases that we didn't have in the past, we are having crises that we never had in the past, yet we do not have the mechanism to help with that, because the global attention hasn't been on us. So to me it feels like they are groping in the dark.

What have you enjoyed most about the fellowship program so far?

I look at it three ways. The first is the social part of just meeting people who are coming from different backgrounds. I'm meeting people who have done very remarkable things in their own fields. The fellows here, we aren't just having conversations on a professional level, but personal level as well. For me it's just knowing that if I ever get stuck, whether I'm doing this fellowship, or after I've finished the fellowship, I'll always have these people who I can reach out to and be like, “Hey, I'm stuck here.” It's so beautiful, forming friendships with people who I didn't know before, and organizing for these trips, and hugging these people. You know, if I was having some personal stuff, just knowing that I can call these people and they would show up. I think that's something that we rarely get an opportunity to talk about. Just knowing that people will always show up for you. And sometimes when we have an activity that we have to go for, and I don't have a car, and I wake up in the morning, I get a text message from Gulnaz, from Andy, from Jessica, asking me, do you need a ride? Without me having to ask. I think that's the most beautiful thing.

The second one is the classes that I've chosen. It's interesting, because today, I just got an email from my leadership professor, who was like, “Today, the class starts with Mercy.” And I'm like, dear Lord, you know, I didn't even know that was a thing. But they're saying, “Today, the class starts with Mercy so that Mercy can talk to us about her project, we can guide her on how to be a leader, as a journalist.” When I was applying for the fellowship, I hadn't thought that I would be thinking deeply about myself, and where journalism is going. To know that there is this community that wants to listen to my story as a journalist, that's interesting for me.

The third part is, being in this fellowship has given me an opportunity to actually think about my future. What do I want to do with myself? Just having a space where you can ask yourself that question and have resources that can help you answer that question. I think it's beautiful.

What are your favorite classes you are taking this semester?

It's really hard to choose my favorite class, because I'm taking four classes and all of them are unique, so maybe I'll pick two. I've alluded to the leadership class, which I enjoy because in media we rarely talk about leadership. Yet the leadership that you have in a newsroom or the leadership qualities that you have in yourself as a journalist really determine your success, and even how the audience appreciates your stories. Because unless you're an organized person, unless you have good communication skills, you won’t be successful. One of the things that we've done in my leadership class is confronting your weaknesses. And as journalists, sometimes you have this thing that makes you feel like you're almost beyond reproach, because you're the one who is gazing at other people and writing about their weakness. But now you have this class where you are analyzing your own weaknesses, your personal weaknesses, and how they affect your life as a journalist. That's where I am.

I just recently realized that I'm very disorganized—that was painful to learn. And I'm also realizing that I'm impatient. And journalism, somehow, because of the beat that I was on, has taken away some of my humanity. I start looking at people as potential stories instead of people. I learned that in my leadership class, where we're just confronting our weaknesses, and seeing ways in which we can work on that. So I love the leadership class, because it's very holistic, it teaches you your strengths, your weaknesses, and the way forward.

The other class that I'm loving is global health and music. I love music. I have been listening to music just for the sake of listening to music. But this class is teaching me to look and listen to music differently. For instance, we're learning how to use music for mental health. We were learning how to use music for exercise. We even came up with a playlist on some of the best music you can use to work. And it's interesting to just learn music from different cultures. We were learning how even people in media and people in the communication field can use music to communicate. We're looking at music in terms of HIV. How music was used to drive messages. Music during the times of Ebola, music now during COVID. And that's an interesting class. We are also learning music for the sake of fun.

Along with listening to music and dancing, what are some things you like to do for fun?

I love reading. I love listening to music, especially recently. I've started deliberately stepping out of the house and walking. Sometimes I do 20,000 steps in the evening. I've been realizing that I'm starting to enjoy learning things about people and just watching people, because I've always been fascinated by people. When you're walking and looking at what people do with their free time, you get to see what fascinates people, and that is interesting. Another thing that I've started doing recently because I come from a big family —I have six sisters—every day they ask me for photos of what I did, so I started deliberately just taking one photo a day that summarizes what I did. It's interesting how the world looks when you're analyzing photos that you took about each moment.

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Five Questions for the Fellows: Jessica Camille Aguirre

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 04:49:26 +0000

Five Questions for the Fellows: Jessica Camille Aguirre Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/15/2023 - 21:49

Devin Farmiloe

Jessica Camille Aguirre is a climate journalist who focuses on climate change at its extremes. Her work has taken her to Amsterdam, where she reported for The New York Times on how to recycle a 14-story office building; to Colombia to cover oil spills wreaking havoc on local communities and ecosystems; and many other locales to cover the business of climate change, climate terrorism, utopias, and much more. Aguirre has been a Knight Science Journalism Fellow and received the 2018 Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award.

Aguirre sat down with CEJ graduate assistant Devin Farmiloe to talk about her work and experience as a fellow.

Jessica, you focus on climate change topics at their extremes. What is a climate extreme you have reported on that highlights the magnitude of the crisis?

When I say that I write about climate change and extremes, what I mean is that climate change as it's affecting our planet is going to exacerbate the occurrence of these extremes. What I'm interested in is how humans confront that experience: what it means to be pushing those extremes further and further, as we start experiencing to a greater and greater degree the effects of the changing chemistry of our planet. In that sense, I think that it's kind of a broad interest of mine. In terms of an extreme experience, one thing that I've been writing about recently is space exploration. What kind of impact that leaving the planet has on people's perceptions of the planet. The extremity of being in space and how that often catalyzes a kind of shift in perspective about what it means to have a planet that enables biological life, and what it means then to protect the planet, especially when you consider the uniqueness of it in the universe.

You are currently working on a project about recreating the earth's ecosystem for space travel. What is your most interesting finding from that line of inquiry?

What I expected to find—and have been finding—is just the level of complexity that is inherent in ecosystems that support human life, and how difficult it is to recreate anything like that. I think that’s what initially drew me to the question of recreating ecosystems and what continues to interest me about the question. More specifically, one of the things I found really interesting in researching this is that a lot of the ways in which we recreate ecosystems are for space travel, and so they're these miniature, artificial environments. And because they're small, you can only fit a certain number of people in them, so you've got these little groups of people isolated for months at a time. They end up producing some really interesting psychology, and interpersonal relationships, and interpersonal dynamics. So much of what it means to be alive is to negotiate our interpersonal relationships, and how that can be really challenging when they're placed under duress.

Could you tell me more about the studies being conducted in these artificial environments?

The first series of experiments were done in Siberia in the 1960s, where they created these underground bunkers. They used algae to produce a lot of oxygen, and grew some crops for food. The Soviet scientists at the time were like, “We should diversify what we're giving the participants to eat.” So then the ecosystems became much more complicated. They still used algae to produce a lot of their oxygen, but then they started introducing things like wheat crops and cucumbers and beets and other stuff. And these cosmonauts would be locked into them. They were hermetically sealed so they wouldn't get any oxygen from the atmosphere, and all of their carbon dioxide that they emitted would be trapped in with them to test whether or not these plant ecosystems would be able to process the participants’ chemical effluents. Those are the first experiments that they were locked into for months at a time. And then obviously psychologists also watched how they interacted with each other.

Then the next large-scale experiments were the experiments in Arizona in the late ’80s, early ’90s. NASA at the time was developing a couple of different human enclosure experiments to try to test out closed-loop ecosystems. Then the most recent ones are underway in China at something called the Lunar Palace, outside of Beijing. The reason it is called the Lunar Palace is the idea of it is to create a human habitat that they can export to a colony on the moon. So there are concrete ambitions to establish human colonies on the moon that have been articulated by the Chinese government.

Moving to something quite a bit less complex, how has your time in Boulder and the fellowship so far?

It's been great. I have felt very privileged to be able to attend classes across a range of departments here at the university. In particular, I'm taking a few classes in the geology department, which have been really eye-opening and have deepened my appreciation of the Earth's history and deep time. I have also taken classes in environmental philosophy and environmental chemistry. I've had the chance to really expand my studies and extend my studies in a lot of different areas that I didn't necessarily feel confident in beforehand.

I also think that having the opportunity to be here with a cohort of accomplished journalists who are here to pursue these really interesting projects has been an extraordinary privilege. It's a lot of fun to be able to meet up with them at least once a week. We meet more often, but in the seminars we get to talk about some of the biggest environmental stories of our time. That's been a lot of fun as well.

Lastly, what do you do outside of journalism?

I spend a lot of time reading and I like to hang out with friends and cook meals with people. I like to spend time outside, which Boulder has been great for. It's kind of amazing how many different hiking paths and incredible outdoor spaces you can reach within five minutes from downtown Boulder. So that's been something else that has been really great about my time here so far.

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