Why an energy reporter is spending more time covering climate change

Amy Harder, an energy reporter at Axios, writes about why she is spending more time covering climate change.

Harder writes, “I joined Axios in April 2017 after three years covering energy, environment and climate change at The Wall Street Journal.

“Numerous people, mainly executives, sources and others in the fossil-fuel industries, have remarked to me how much more I’m covering climate change at Axios than I was at the WSJ.

“The details: Reporters often cover energy and climate change in separate silos. I am committed to a reporting track that considers the two inseparable. Of course, there are stories that don’t overlap, but with time inevitably limited in life, a reporter has to focus, so that’s mine. Here are the drivers of my shift over the last two years.

President Trump

• The media naturally gravitates to controversy, and Trump has made climate change more controversial than ever, given he denies there’s a problem at all, is rolling back aggressive climate-change policies of his predecessor and mulling a plan to rebut mainstream climate science.
• As I wrote in this column in 2017, I believe it’s our job in the media to emphasize and highlight where Trump is wrong on the science, without hyperbole.
• While President Obama at times exaggerated the impacts of climate change, he didn’t go so far to reject basic science like Trump.”

Read more here.