Environmental journalism must bridge local stories with global data in era of misinformation

In an age where environmental challenges span from local communities to global systems, effective environmental journalism requires combining ground-level reporting with high-tech monitoring tools, according to Mongabay founder Rhett Butler. Rather than relying solely on high-level perspectives from boardrooms and international summits, the most impactful environmental stories emerge from reporters working directly with affected communities—such as interviewing fishermen in mangrove swamps about the changes they’ve witnessed firsthand.

Mongabay has built a network of hundreds of local reporters across 80 countries to capture these “ground truths.” However, Butler emphasizes that local reporting gains its full power when combined with satellite data and global monitoring systems. For example, satellite imagery showing deforestation patterns becomes most meaningful when local reporters can explain who is cutting the trees, their motivations, and what ecosystems are being lost in the process.

This balanced approach faces unprecedented challenges in today’s information landscape. While technology provides powerful tools to monitor environmental changes in real time, the same digital capabilities enable the rapid spread of misinformation. Environmental journalists must now navigate between healthy skepticism toward unverified claims and faith in scientific evidence—a delicate balance that’s crucial for maintaining public trust.

The challenge for modern environmental journalism is making invisible planetary changes visible to the public while ensuring local environmental stories resonate on a global scale, all while combating the erosion of trust in factual reporting that characterizes our current era.