Thirty-six years ago, the American journalist Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature, the first mass-market book about climate change. The book warned, from the perspective of a lover of nature, about the dangers posed by a warming planet:
Changes in our world which can affect us can happen in our lifetime—not just changes like wars but bigger and more sweeping events. Without recognizing it, we have already stepped over the threshold of such a change.
Since publishing The End of Nature in 1989, McKibben has produced more words, with more insights, about the climate crisis and its solutions (see his latest book, Here Comes The Sun) than any other writer: 19 books, dozens of New Yorker stories, and countless magazines pieces and podcasts and blog posts and newsletters.
McKibben is the graceful father of modern climate journalism, which is why Covering Climate Now is honoring him with its first-ever lifetime achievement award. McKibben joins colleagues from around the world, recognized last week as winners of the fifth annual Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards, chosen from more than 1,200 entries from every continent. It is not an exaggeration to say that many of those journalists might not be covering climate change if McKibben had not paved the way — demonstrating the power of telling the climate story in a way that resonates.
But if McKibben is peerless in his journalistic telling of the climate story, it’s also true that he makes some colleagues nervous.
McKibben is unusual in straddling two worlds that are now more at odds than ever: the world of advocacy and the world of journalism. His founding of the environmental group 350.org, and his role in helping to organize protests against the fossil fuel status quo, have made some journalism traditionalists in the US nervous about embracing him as one of their own. (This, despite a New Yorker pedigree and book sales figures that must make some of those journalists jealous.) Indeed, a wire-service reporter told us a few years ago that ”You guys need to stop featuring McKibben. He’s an activist, not a journalist.”
In fact, McKibben is both, and it is for his journalism that CCNow is honoring him. But we also hope this recognition by an international journalism service organization like CCNow will prompt a reexamination of the role of advocacy in journalism at this pivotal moment in American history, when First Amendment freedoms and the very existence of democracy and the rule of law are under severe threat.
The criticisms of McKibben recall previous episodes in American history when good journalism was disparaged by some as agenda-driven advocacy. It happened during the Vietnam War, when reporters were vilified for pointing out the lies in Pentagon casualty estimates. It happened during the Civil Rights era, when journalists who reported on protest marches were accused of abetting the movement. It happened during Watergate, when the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were told, by ordinary citizens but also by some news business colleagues, that they had no business taking on a sitting president.
Though criticized at the time, those stories look different in the eyes of history. Nowadays, they are commonly seen as the media doing some of its best work: Telling the truth. Standing up for people without a voice. Holding political leaders to account when they wanted people to look the other way.
The same argument about advocacy has also colored how the media covered the climate story over the years — which was not very much. For too long, climate silence prevailed.
McKibben was among the first to argue that if we take science seriously, then journalists can’t apply the conventional “tell both sides” maxim to the climate story. Physics, after all, does not compromise. Physics imposes its own time limit, which is what makes the politics of climate change different from that of other issues. With health care or tax reform, McKibben explained, advocates can fight for their goals and, if they fall short, come back the next year and fight again. Not so with climate change. Wait too long to stop it, and catastrophe becomes unavoidable.
Our profession has a lot of catching up to do on the climate story. At a time when too many news organizations — or, more precisely, their corporate owners — are surrendering to government intimidation, McKibben’s example is instructive. Now, more than ever, his body of work should inspire and motivate us all.
Read the full piece in The Nation and El País (English / Spanish).
From Us
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Quote of the Week
“The window to a manageable climate future is still open, but just [barely]. Failure is not inevitable. It is a choice.”
– Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, addressing the Secretary General’s Climate Summit during the 2025 UN General Assembly
Noteworthy Stories
Trump at UNGA. In his UN General Assembly speech this week, US president Donald Trump went on an “extraordinary diatribe that ignored the human suffering exacted by the heat waves, wildfires and deadly floods that are aggravated by the burning of fossil fuels,” write Somini Sengupta and Lisa Friedman for The New York Times…
China’s new pledge. At the UN General Assembly, President Xi Jinping announced that China would slash emissions by 7-10% over the next decade, a goal that was described as “both underwhelming and transformative.” By Edward White and Attracta Mooney for the Financial Times…
Argentina’s historic flooding. En respuesta a las inundaciones, agravadas por el cambio climático, que arrasaron Bahía Blanca, destruyeron infraestructuras y causaron la muerte a 16 personas, la comunidad pide al gobierno de Milei un plan de adaptación a gran escala para prevenir futuros impactos. Por Agustín Gulman para El País…
“A People’s Climate.” The Nation has launched a new podcast, “A People’s Climate,” focused on the people largely ignored by the “‘mainstream’ climate conversation.” Listen to the trailer.
Resource
Climate action support. Climate Central’s Climate Matters has released a new story package, “Most People Want Climate Action,” explaining that 89% of the world’s population want their governments to take more action on climate change, but that most people don’t know they’re in the majority. (The package includes a free graphic and ready-to-air video.)
‘Drawdown Explorer.’ Project Drawdown has evaluated hundreds of climate solutions for their efficacy in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Get story ideas and learn more with the Drawdown Explorer.
Jobs & Opportunities
The Seattle Times is hiring a climate reporter (Washington State). The New York Times is hiring a deputy editor for climate (N.Y., N.Y.). Important, Not Important is hiring a part-time social media producer.
The Online News Association is accepting applications for its Women’s Leadership Accelerator 2025 cohort. Participants will receive leadership training, coaching, and support. Apply by October 3.
The post Honoring Bill McKibben for a Lifetime of Ground-Breaking Climate Journalism appeared first on Covering Climate Now.
