Confronting climate change with fiercely independent, data-driven journalism

Mainstream journalism is broken. Climate journalism is on life support.

Not one White House reporter asked President Joe Biden last month about climate change during his first press conference since taking office. CNN’s reporters were too busy forecasting the 2024 presidential race.

We’re on the cusp of a life-threatening climate calamity, a massive disruption of the energy industry and a revolution in greentech jobs. But mainstream journalists are largely ignoring the enormity of the problem or covering renewable energy like it’s a quixotic science project — even in one of the fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy.

Since 2018, the Wall Street Journal has run five times as many stories mentioning ​“oil” in the context of ​“fuel” or ​“energy” compared to stories that cite renewable energy. The New York Times, the L.A. Times and USA Today fare little better: Their combined coverage of renewable energy has amounted to roughly a third of their reporting on oil in the past three years. Television reporting on climate change in the U.S. plummeted by 53% in 2020, according to watchdog group Media Matters. Meanwhile, market forces and outmoded business models are crushing news outfits and putting journalists out of work.

How does insightful energy and climate reporting survive in today’s brutal media landscape? Where is the expert, independent news coverage in this life-or-death sector? 

A better way

There’s a better way to cover the energy transition.

The world-class Greentech Media news team has gotten back together, teamed up with ​“Dr. Volts” David Roberts, a leading voice in energy journalism, and added more all-stars to the roster to launch the newsroom of record for the trillion-dollar decarbonization revolution.

We’re transforming from niche leader to mainstream climate news incumbent as an independent affiliate of the preeminent think tank RMI, a revered and mission-aligned partner for which revenue isn’t the only goal. When Jules Kortenhorst, the CEO of RMI, first met with the team, he lauded the ​“reach, audience and impact” that our combined forces could have in covering climate change — not the money we could make. The partnership of RMI and our all-star news team brings climate-industry-insider insight to a general audience, leverages RMI’s unparalleled research portfolio and recreates our old alchemy with a broader coverage scope. We will build on the foundation laid by GTM, but our aspirations are now far more ambitious.

The go-to source for climate news

It’s time for coverage of the climate crisis that’s commensurate with the enormity of the problem. Starting today, Canary Media will strive to be your go-to news team reporting on the single most formidable challenge facing humanity.

Despite the lack of climate questions last month, the Biden administration is integrating carbon awareness into every federal department. NATO now positions climate change at the core of all its planning. The energy transition is poised to garner $12 trillion of global investment by 2050, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Renewable energy is on track to generate the largest share of U.S. electricity within the next decade.

Canary Media fills the information gap in global climate coverage. We deliver insightful reporting backed by world-class research across the broad domains of electrifying everything, renewable generation, modernizing the grid and reducing the carbon footprint of transportation, buildings and heavy industry.