The Media and the Environment

The conversation with KPFA reporter Brian Edwards-Tiekert was very interesting and engaging for me. I  am an Environmental Studies major/Journalism minor so his career is similar to something I want to do in the future.  I wanted to hear more about what it's like to report on environmental issues. He said it can be depressing, which I'm sure is true - I get depressed just learning these issues in class. It would be so much harder to hear all the grave details and then watch, talk to, and report on politicians who fail to make the necessary changes to fix the problems. I think the struggle with this career would be the feeling of helplessness. Clearly, environmental reporting is important and necessary, but I think I might feel like I should be a part of the things I would be reporting on, rather than just covering the story. Altogether, Brian said some interesting things about anthropogenic climate change that have stuck with me, and, even though he does radio and I'm interested in newspaper, he got me thinking more about a future in environmental media and how best to utilize my education.