Stephen Leahy, International Environmental Journalist

I’m an independent journalist who covers international environmental issues in the public interest. My work focuses exclusively on truly important stories, stories going unreported by mainstream media.

All media outlets are struggling financially. It’s now nearly impossible to make a living as environmental journalist. If news corporations won’t or can’t pay for journalism in the public interest then I am hoping people will.

“Stephen Leahy, a Canadian, and one of the world’s best-known investigative reporters on environmental issues, has launched a challenge : if corporations won’t pay for the news, then it is up to communities and the public to fill the gap.“

– Swiss journalist Daniel Wermus in 2010 article.

Without information there is no motivation to change. Journalism and media are our societal feedback system that provides information to make choices. When our feedback system is hi-jacked, distorted or hobbled we lose our way.

Community Supported Environmental Journalism is a new concept. In exchange for producing articles about important issues that millions will read, I am asking people to provide some support. Just $10 a month helps guarantee informative and useful articles like the ones on this site will continue to be written. 

Without your support I can’t work for all of us. Kudos and thanks to the current and past supporters listed here — Stephen

Contributions can be made safely and easily via PayPal or Credit Card

Monthly support options starting @ $10 a month

Click here to make a single, one-time donation

For more info on how you can help.

“We need people like you. In tough economic times, where information flow is increasingly channelled and controlled…”

– E. Ann Clark, Associate Professor, University of Guelph

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Few people understand the serious danger climate change poses all of us largely because media have done a poor job in covering it. In 2010, US TV media pretended it had all gone away – no more global warming…poof, bad dream, moving on.

From the must-bookmark The Daily Climate:

Drexel University professor Robert Brulle has analyzed nightly network news since the 1980s. Last year’s climate coverage was so miniscule, he said, that he’s doubting his data.

….

Coverage of December’s United Nations climate talks in Cancun is Exhibit A: Total meeting coverage by the networks consisted of one 10-second clip, Brulle said. By contrast, 2009′s Copenhagen talks generated 32 stories totaling 98 minutes of airtime. “I’m trying to check it again and again,” Brulle said of the 2010 data. “It’s so little, it’s stunning.”

Newspapers do little better with a huge decline in the US/Canada in 2010 which had some of the lowest level of coverage in the world, lower than Asia and the Pacific according to this graph. Read the rest of this entry »

Journalism and media are a society’s mirror, ideally providing true and essential information.

That is no longer the case.

Media is now controlled by a few major corporations like Murdoch’s News Corp.

Coverage of environment and science has been gutted. When there is coverage it rarely digs below the surface. It’s not just TV, it’s all media. After 18 years of being published in major publications on two continents I now count myself lucky to get $150 to $200 for an in-depth article that took the better part a week to research and write. The few independent media outlets are either non-profits or struggling.

Environmental issues didn’t go away just because most media stopped covering them.

More than 20,000 attended the last big international climate meeting and it received one ten second clip on US network TV according to a Drexel University media study. Our environmental problems are getting worse but less and less people know about it.

Many people, including leading scientists, tell me: ‘we need people like you to write about these issues‘. I’d like to do far more but it is impossible to continue without your help in what I’m calling Community Supported Journalism. People directly support independent journalists who craft honest and thoughtful articles about important subjects the mainstream media ignores or gloss over.

Community Supported Environmental Journalism Works

In 2010 dozens of people offered their help, donating $5,750 which helped ensure many breaking international stories were covered including the first media reports on the global die-off of corals and how climate change may be bringing colder winters to Europe and eastern North America. Those donors — I prefer to call them partners — enabled me to cover important international meetings like the UN Convention on Biodiversity, UNFCCC climate change conference and much more.

Please join us. Consider a donation of just $10 a month to support enviro journalism that serves the public interest.

Contributions can be made safely and easily via PayPal* or Credit Card*. [You can cancel at any time, automatically. No need to contact me] 

Monthly support options starting @ $10 a month

One-time donations are most welcome. Click and enter the amount.

*More than 100,000 non-profits safely use PayPal Donate service

If you’d like a mailing address or contact me with story ideas, please complete this comment form.

Thanks for reading. — Stephen

Letters of Support:

We need people like you. In tough economic times, where information flow is increasingly channeled and controlled, you perform a simply critical role. Hang in there. You are an admirable role model for the future.”

– E. Ann Clark, Associate Professor, University of Guelph.

“Stephen Leahy has done a superb job exposing the enormous sums the US government is spending on corporate welfare for big oil.”

Ross Gelbspan, Pulitzer-prize winning editor and author of The Heat is On

My continued appreciation to those who have contributed in the past.

I was the only North American journalist to go and cover this important conference in Nagoya. People donated enough to help with travel costs so I could write about 10 articles that reached more than 200 million people. Scroll down and look for the COP 10 logo to find those articles.

I’m an independent journalist based in Canada who supports his family and the public interest writing articles about important social & environmental issues. This is now only possible with your support: see How Community Supported Journalism Works. Contributions can be made safely via PayPal or check/cheque. Thank you/Merci. — Stephen

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