The Most Important Question Why is Environmental Justice Journalism Important?
It’s always worth revisiting the inarguable fact that our country was designed to be inequitable.
And while much progress has been made over time, the powers that be continued to imagine and design new ways of marginalizing, at best, Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous people throughout our society and economy.
But who will tell their story? And who should?
Local news has all but disappeared. Meanwhile, the communities most marginalized and least covered by mainstream publishers continue to struggle.
It’s important we help them tell their stories, not only so we are – very simply – more aware and educated about lived experiences different from our own, but so we can understand the specific mechanics behind the systems oppressing them, where their organizing has been successful, and where it hasn’t, and why.
And finally, how best to help.
We need new models of local and regional and even national news, where the news and stories are more accessible, more a product of relationships inside those communities, and more impactful, to improve daily outcomes, and to prepare us for an even more volatile future.
My guest today is Adam Mahoney.
Adam is a national climate and environment reporter at Capital B, a first-of-its-kind Black-led nonprofit local and national news organization committed to news that centers Black voices and experiences to act as a catalyst for meaningful change and beat back against mistruths targeted at Black people.
In his reporting, Adam covers issues involving environmental racism, the ways communities are fighting climate change, and how the climate crisis is disproportionately impacting communities of color.
Prior to joining Capital B, Adam covered policing in Chicago and was a reporter covering environmental justice and investigations at Grist, where he was also an environmental justice fellow.
Since joining Capital B, Adam has conducted numerous investigations tied to environmental justice and telling the underreported ways climate change is impacting Black Americans.
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INI Book Club:
- Becoming Abolitionists by Derecka Purnell
- Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
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- Edited by Anthony Luciani
- Produced by Willow Beck
- Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com
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