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ProfilesQ & A with Gustavo Faleiros
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Research and Media Network |
Gustavo Faleiros is an environmental journalist at O Eco Online in Brazil and a Fellow in the Climate Change Media Partnership co-sponsored by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network. He has a special interest in “geojournalism,” the new practice of combining online mapping and satellite imagery with reporting to tell richer stories.
Describe your work as an environmental journalist.
I covered water and sanitation for a financial newspaper in Brazil called Valor Economico for almost two years. Then I decided that, if I really wanted to be an environmental expert, I should study the subject more. So I got a Masters in Environmental Policy. After that I spent the next two years covering the Brazilian federal government's policies on the environment. I did that for O Eco, an environmental website that I’ve been working for since 2006.
How do you think journalism can affect climate change and other environmental issues?
This is a tricky one. A lot of journalists might say that our work will not affect environmental issues as we should be just reporting these issues. In my case I feel that my work really has some impact on environmental debate. That is because at O Eco we often write stories that are not neutral. If something is damaging nature, or causing problems to society, we really go for a strong argument that conservation is better than blind development. In general, journalism affects climate issues because simple information plays a central role in debates and decisions.
What is geojournalism?
Geojournalism describes projects that mix journalistic information with mapping and remote sensing technologies. Due to software such as Google Earth and Virtual Earth, there is an opportunity to innovate in the way a journalist tells a story. At the same time, there is a large amount of information coming from free satellite images, due to open-minded policies at NASA and other space agencies around the world. So geojournalism enables reporters to relate complex subjects in a simple way by using maps and satellite images that give people an experience of the environment.
Geojournalism challenges me every day, as I have to create slide shows, do voiceovers, and still produce accurate and relevant content. Today at O Eco, coinciding with Earth Day, we are launching a new geojournalism project called GeoNews. There will be an English version soon.
What kinds of geojournalism can improve people’s understanding of climate change?
On a satellite image, we can very clearly see smoke signals when a large tract of forest is burning, and we can say how much the burning of forests is contributing to climate change. A more direct representation of changes in the atmosphere could also be shown by images that track carbon dioxide concentrations. And finally, storms, droughts, hurricanes – they all provide clear imagery that tells us about the hard time we are having with climate change.
In your opinion, what are the most important environmental stories to tell in Brazil?
I think the story is why a country so rich in natural resources and blessed with so much natural beauty and life has to destroy almost everything to create something in the name of economic development and social welfare. Something is clearly wrong....
You were a Climate Change Media Partnership Fellow at the Climate Summits in Poznan, Poland in 2008, and Bali in 2007. What did you learn by attending the negotiations with other CCMP Fellows from around the world?
I learned so much that it is difficult to summarize. I learned that many countries like Brazil are facing the dilemma of development versus conservation. At the same time it was clear to me that the Fellows were aware of this and it was interesting to see how this perspective was present even in simple stories. In a few words, I would say that I saw a very mature and innovative journalism in action.
Do you have any advice for young journalists interested in covering environmental issues?
Dedication and pleasure when dealing with the subject are the two things I would recommend. Dedication because covering environmental issues requires some level of study, and pleasure because these are the issues that will define so many things in the future that is almost impossible to not get excited about being involved with the environment.
O Eco Monitor Project: An example of Gustavo Faleiros' geojournalism work (in Portuguese).
Watch a video interview of Gustavo Faleiros at the 2008 Climate Change Conference in Bali.
