Reporting on Tropical Forest Carbon

The power of words and photographs concerning the Peruvian Amazon and Costa Rica
March 29th, Noon - 1pm ET

Uptake of carbon dioxide by vegetation reduces accumulation of the gas in the atmosphere and slows climate change. One ton of every four tons of greenhouse gasses produced from burning fossil fuels is absorbed by plants. But ongoing global warming influences how effectively plants continue playing this essential function. The socio-political contexts and power structures that govern forests are also critical factors influencing their success in mitigating climate change.

Join us for a conversation with three journalists who have reported on the promise and perils of tropical forest carbon projects.
 
Science journalist Daniel Grossman and photographer Dado Galdieri collaborated on the Pulitzer Center-supported project Carbon Chronicles. Reporting on carbon uptake in tropical forests in Peru and Costa Rica, the two will highlight how they communicate scientific concepts for a public audience. Blanca Begert, 2020 YPCCC-Pulitzer Center reporting fellow, will share how her social science background and her past research on a contested conservation project in Peru contextualizes her upcoming reporting project on carbon offset initiatives in Amazonia.

Register here.

Daniel Grossman has been a science journalist for 30 years. He has produced radio features and documentaries for U.S. public radio, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Deutsche Welle radio, the BBC, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He has written for The New Yorker, National Geographic, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Discover, Scientific American and Science. He is co-author of "A Scientist's Guide to Talking with the Media: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists"; and "Floresta em Risco: As Mudanças Climáticas Destruuirâo A Floresta Amazônica?" (Forest at Risk: Will Climate Change Destroy the Amazon?).
 
Blanca Begert is a 2020 graduate of the Yale School of the Environment. As a researcher, writer, and environmental practitioner, her work focuses on forest management and policy, Indigenous land rights, environmental conflict, and climate change in the US and Latin America. While in graduate school, Blanca conducted research around a national protected area in Peruvian Amazonia with the Center for International Forestry Research’s Equity, Gender, Justice and Tenure Team. Previously, she was a photographer and video producer at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and a video producer with Essence Magazine.
 
Dado Galdieri has been a photojournalist for more than 20 years, reporting on social and environmental issues in his home country of Brazil and elsewhere in South America.
Galdieri has visited and reported from nearly the entire Amazonian region, reporting for many outlets. As his artistic approach, he tries to cast light on the conflicts inherent to human development, and their consequences for the climate as well as to natural resource use and depletion. In Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico he has covered the Indigenous rise to power and identity struggles among many ethnic groups.

This talk is sponsored by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.