ABSTRACT
In her second chapter, the distinguished journalist provides a fascinating, first-person account of her career in environmental journalism. When she started in 2009, climate change was frequently treated as a joke in Russia and “‘climate’ stories were said to be of low interest for the vast majority of mainstream media.” Nevertheless, she persevered, often reporting on climate change from an economic/political point of view. “As I was writing over these years, the interest towards climate change and the environment was growing,” she writes. “Nowadays, the stories about climate change are highly present in media outlets, from political, economic, social, health, tech, lifestyle, business, energy, and environmental points of view. One can still find media coverage of climate denialists or scientists doubting the importance of climate change, along with stories about how Russia contributes to curbing global warming with its vast forests (and thus doesn’t need to reduce its emissions any further). But there are more and more stories (many of which have me as an author) telling about the future risks for the Russian economy resulting from its heavy dependence on fossil fuels as the rest of the world is turning towards green and low-carbon development.” Today, the author travels extensively as an environmental reporter, always returning to her home base in St. Petersburg, where she teaches journalism and serves as a director for an environmental journalism NGO.
