Roger Cohn. Roxana Grunenwald / Yale University
Our first home page — on June 3, 2008 — reflected our breadth: activist Bill McKibben on the world passing the tipping point of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; Pulitzer Prize-winner Elizabeth Kolbert on the environmental issues in the 2008 U.S. presidential race (both John McCain and Barack Obama were concerned about climate change); ecologist Carl Safina on the newly-recognized problem of ocean acidification; science writer Richard Conniff on the myth of clean coal; an interview with the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which had recently won the Nobel Prize. It’s hard to look back now without wishing more progress had been made in addressing these challenges in the two decades since.
Over the last 18 years, we have reported from all seven continents and featured analysis and commentary from scientists, government leaders, and decision makers that has directly influenced policy around the globe. Our journalists have reported on the murders of environmentalists who stood up to powerful interests, delved into the latest science on climate, highlighted the advance of clean energy in the Global South, and exposed threats to some of world’s most critical biodiversity hotspots. I do not believe any environmental publication has a better roster of contributors than e360. Their work has won us major awards — from a prestigious National Magazine Award to an Oscar nomination — and has earned us global respect and impact.
Yale Environment 360's first home page in June 2008. Yale Environment 360
I have been blessed to be able to spend my career in the immensely satisfying field of journalism and to work with many of the finest nature and science writers in the world. In my early years as an editor, I learned much about the natural world by editing such writers as Peter Matthiessen, Ted Williams, Terry Tempest Williams, and David Quammen; here at e360, I’ve benefited from the fine science writing and insights of Fred Pearce, Elizabeth Kolbert, Nicola Jones, Jim Robbins, Ed Struzik, and so many others whose work will continue to appear on e360.
We have always had only one agenda for e360: to provide readers with in-depth, independent environmental journalism. None of that will change. Our managing editor Jeremy Deaton and senior editor Elizabeth Royte will lead e360 as it goes forward. The need for the reliable, science-based reporting and analysis we provide has never been greater, and I know they will be up to the task.
One of the wonderful things about being a journalist is that you are always learning and engaged in the world. I will be going to Zambia to spend next year teaching reporting and writing at a university there. I have a long and deep connection to Zambia, where I have visited many times over the years. It has pained me to hear our president denigrate nations like it as “s..thole countries” and to see the cutoff of life-saving U.S. health aid to Africa. I am excited to be able to help aspiring Zambian journalists and to give something back.
I leave e360 at a time when many of the issues we focus on — clean air, clean water, biodiversity, our climate — are under siege. It is easy to be discouraged. But I remain optimistic about the power of fact-based journalism to move public opinion and spur change, and I know e360 will continue to play an important role in that essential effort.
Roger Cohn is Editor of Yale Environment 360. He can be reached at roger.cohn@yale.edu.