As the climate crisis becomes the new normal for the Philippines, journalists across the country questioned whether the country is effectively managing multiple crises, let alone working to achieve resiliency. These data-driven investigations uncovered a country facing multidimensional crises stemming from natural disasters, water shortages, waste and heat. The investigations reveal across all those crises, a greed that means that the poorest and vulnerable pay the highest price, and a system that guarantees profit with impunity for those responsible.
The Environmental Data Journalism Academy in the Philippines was a collaborative program by Thibi and the Internews' Earth Journalism Network. The Academy trained journalists in the Philippines to produce in-depth data-driven stories on critical environmental issues in the country.
Staff and partners sought to identify passionate environmental journalists with the qualities needed to excel in an intensive training and mentoring program while continuing to work in their newsrooms. Applicants underwent a rigorous selection process including skills assessment, interviews and writing and critical thinking tests. A cohort of 37 was selected for the six-week-long online Fundamentals level course, which guided the trainees through a data-driven investigation into the scale, impact, causes and solutions to environmental disasters’ devastation of marginalized communities. In groups, they produced interactive Flourish stories and completed Masterfiles to graduate from the Fundamentals level.
Nineteen alumni advanced to the Intermediate level, which led participants through the production of a complete Masterfile on the impact of poor roads on disaster vulnerability and the drafting of a story with visualizations. Finally, 15 of these journalists competed for a story grant by presenting the Research section of their Masterfile for a data-driven investigation on the environmental issue of their choice. They attended a weeklong training session and received support from data and story mentors. Many focused on impending disasters, while others explored disasters already in their midst—from scorching heat to plastic pollution to the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources and human labor.
These are their stories.
Banner image: A drone shot of the Pingkian Central in Barangay Pasong Tamo taken on March 2, 2024. Barangay Pasong Tamo was included in the list of critical areas based on the Service Recovery Update released by Manila Water on June 22, 2019 / Credit: Gigie Cruz, for ABS-CBN News.
