As part of the “Inside the Newsroom” series, leading environmental data reporters shared projects on the impact of extractive activities and deforestation in the region.
We’re seeing impacts of the climate crisis across Latin America, from the world’s largest tropical rainforest –the Amazon– to the Paraná River Basin that creeps into Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
However, for journalists, knowing where and how to find data that can tell the story of those impacts is often difficult. A recent roundtable, “Inside the Newsroom: How to use data to cover climate change,” provided insight on where to start.
Argentine journalist Fermín Koop moderated a conversation between journalists working at some of the leading environmental and data news sites in Latin America, including:
“We know that climate change is becoming increasingly present in news coverage, and that access to reliable data is fundamental for accurately contextualizing the impacts of the climate for the public,” said Koop, managing editor for Latin America at environmental and climate news outlet Dialogue Earth.
The participants discussed projects in which they used data, geolocation, satellite mapping, artificial intelligence and collaboration with scientists to cover topics like oil exploration and its impact on Indigenous communities in the Amazon, uncontrolled water extraction in Mexico or deforestation and agribusiness in the Paraná River Basin.
They shared how they find data on platforms like Global Forest Watch, MapBiomas Amazon or the Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG, for its initials in Spanish).
To access and learn from the complete discussion, view the complete video recording of the roundtable on the Knight Center’s YouTube page.
Video of a companion session in Portuguese, which was held on May 26 with four leading data and environmental journalists in Brazil, is also available.
These roundtables are part of the Knight Center’s “Inside the Newsroom” series on innovation and opportunities in journalism across Latin America.
This article was translated with AI assistance and reviewed by Teresa Mioli.
