Summer Conference Events

Recent years have seen significant improvement in both recognition and rhetoric from those in power around the need for action to address the looming impacts of the climate crisis. However, in too many cases, positive words have served only to obscure inaction at best and continued harm at worst.

Luuk Sengers is a seasoned investigative journalist specialising in the impact of large corporations on the environment, public health, and the climate. In recent years he has found that the traditional way of business reporting is no longer sufficient: because of the decisive impact of many multinationals on the climate crisis, it has now literally become a matter of life and death.

This session, led by an expert in leveraging the techniques of data journalism to produce deforestation and climate change investigations, takes attendees through the practice and pitfalls of covering the environment.

Sometimes, the only way to get the story out is to go in undercover. These investigations can be the trickiest that a researcher will ever take on and come with a range of risks and potential pitfalls, but with the climate in crisis and on the brink of full collapse, and many vested interests keeping their deals well hidden, occasionally the means are justified.

Global trade in soy, beef, palm oil and other agricultural commodities is driving tropical deforestation. Governments, businesses and financial institutions have pledged to halt deforestation, but only with transparency in supply chains can these commitments be meaningfully assessed.

Data journalists from Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism will highlight several of the unit’s pioneering geo-journalism tools (#WildEye, #MineAlert, Rhino Court Cases and ClimaTracker) to demonstrate how journalists can incorporate environmental data into their work.