picture: Ricardo / PR
Andrew Freedman, the senior climate journalist of AXIOS and the author of Daily AXIOS, is a reporter who has been awarded for 15 years with extreme weather and climate science. Freedman, an editor of the Washington Post, has MA in law and diplomacy in the climate and society of TUFTS’s Fletcher School and Columbia.
On Tuesday, April 8, Freedman returns to Columbia Climate School Signature Speaker Series Lecture“To the extreme: life at the forefront of climate journalism.” State of the Planet speaks with Freedman before his speech about his work as a climate journalist, the challenge, opportunity and motivation of the field.
How did you start as a reporter and a climate journalist?
I was a geek. I was also interested in journalism and politics. In college, I found climate change as a political issue and realized that it combined everything I was interested.
After undergraduate, I came to DC and worked at NOAA for a while and then focused on climate change and turned into a reporter dealing with the National Assembly. Here and there have been returned to journalism with several bypasses and two graduate school programs, dealing with climate change since 2003.
After about 20 years in this field, what is the biggest change in terms of public response to climate change reports?
I think climate change has gone from the theoretical future problem to many current problems. When I started, science was much more controversial. You had to balance the story with this false equivalence that quotes scientists and quotes ‘skepticists’. Now there are huge and diverse ecosystems of beam. We no longer talk about 2100 and use a computer model. We are talking about climate disasters and influences today.
The political situation has clearly changed. Now, we are not in a particularly suitable place where we can do big things about climate. This is the most restrained thing I can say. We were in the administration that fires all cylinders on climate change, whether you agree with their approach.
teaHe is also changing the information environment. In some cases, there are media outlets and billionaires in charge of the range. What do you think about the way and reporting of the news?
My task is to report what is doing, whether it’s a political behavior that can be fired by climate science or political behavior that many people can be dismissed, or political behavior that can come from NASA and NOAA. We are seeing the earthquake changes in the way science finances and carried out at the federal level, and there is a fundamental question about whether the weather continues to predict, as we actually shared data on climate science.
I was lucky to be a place where we are dedicated to reporting the truth. We are not one of the current executive publications based on the administration. It is actually going on, and all reporters think we should think about things we don’t have to think before.
wDo you think of the audience when reporting? How does it affect your writing?
I jointly write a newsletter every day. I think our audience is from the management of the oil and gas industry to the lobbyists, the people of the National Assembly, the people who are interested in climate, and the industry that cuts around it. Therefore, how is the people who are interested in clean technology or the energy industry are changing? The audience of the website is different. Much wider. When we think about web potential customers, we think about everyday people.
AXIOS MANTRA is a very audience priority. The way we talk and see the length of the story is led by this desire to pursue what is important and why something is important without wasting others’ time. In fact, this is the most difficult writing type.
“When I started, science was much more controversial, you had to balance your story. [by] After quoting scientists, the ‘skepticist’. Now there are huge and diverse ecosystems of the geminar. ”
whyOU has a very unique bullet point format in AXIOS. Do you think it helps to feel constraints or reach a point?
It makes you think about what is really important before you write. I don’t say that it is a constraint, but it can be very difficult to write a climate science story in that style, especially if it deals with complex research in scientific journals. At the same time, gaining major ideas in the best studies actually helps. If I interview someone or read the report, I always tell someone who interacts only for 30 seconds in the elevator? Because people know that it is a long time to see something on the computer screen at a mobile phone or work.
I often often receive feedback from policymakers from policy makers for climate science, and our style is actually helping to provide short and point briefing to prevent the prime minister or minister from leaving the room and not listening to the 30 -slide presentation.
You have MA in climate and society in Columbia. Did this experience change or in some way the approach to work has changed?
I am at the intersection of extreme weather and climate change. There I focused on so many things. I don’t think I could have done it so much that I could do without going through the program. Columbia’s degree has helped to deal with climate science and everything from climate science and climate system. I have taught classes for climate law, disaster, earth science and journalism. In my opinion [the M.A.] In order to have a better list of sources, it helped to understand how to provide knowledge foundations, read research on skepticism, and make better reports in scientific research.
aspirateCan you tell me a little about the upcoming conversation at a climate school?
Well, I am a reporter on the deadline… I would like to talk about how Columbia has changed what I do. I often think that people don’t think or understand how the media works. I would like to talk about what passes through the head when I pull the curtain back and approach the story, the story I particularly proud of, and some trends that I didn’t think proud of. It’s not a long PowerPoint presentation. I can say now. I want to talk to the audience.
You are reporting on very difficult topics. Extreme weather and climate change are not exactly adapted. How do you motivate and keep the problem from reaching you? What do you do to relax?
Very good question. One of my stories is that I will be in conversation because I explore climate anxiety. But I don’t know how to do it. I think I have to separate a lot of time emotionally. I have been greatly involved in improvisation and guest comedy for more than 10 years and have been trained in New York, DC and Chicago. I talk to other climate journalists about what it is like to deal with this problem and help them keep me insane. I think my family is based on me, and I try to focus on as possible as possible.
We all have to play a role [climate change]If you choose. I must remember that talking about all climate stories is not a big burden on my shoulders. There are so many good reporters who do good things. If it’s overwhelming, you have to step back a little. It is a constant battle between separation and especially when there is a child. Climate forecast means different things.
