Environmental journalists should seek the high ground for context

David Poulson

David Poulson

By David Poulson
I once worked with a photographer who had two informal rules on every out-of-town assignment: Eat well on the company dime and never miss the chance to fly.

I certainly enjoyed those expense account meals that I shared with Ralph. But I think the greater lesson was in his insistence on flight.
I don’t mean flying to an assignment. That never happened. But Ralph was convinced that the only way we could truly capture a news story was by renting a plane.
It wasn’t just a photo thing.

I was the words guy. And there were times when I much rather wanted to interview people than chase off to some obscure airport that Ralph found on the map as we reached our destination.
But Ralph made sure I buckled in with him.
The idea was to enhance my descriptive powers – to help readers immerse themselves into the news story. Seek the high ground for context, he’d say.
And Ralph was right. Our readers benefited from images and writing that only could have been produced with a thorough understanding of the scope of the story. I can still picture the line of freighters stretched across the horizon when we covered the collapse of a lock on the Welland Canal that crippled international shipping for months.
I never could have described that from the ground – I never would have seen it.
I am reminded of Ralph’s good advice as Echo launches two new features.
This story is part of Great Lakes Echo's 'Landscope' series.
Landscope is a series of stories built around images from Michigan State University’s aerial imagery archive. Long before Google Earth, Michigan officials had the state photographed from the air every decade or so.
They’re collected here at MSU – the home of Great Lakes Echo. And they’re fun to sort through. Some date back to the 1930s.
While gray, grainy and nowhere near as slick as Google Earth, these images tell fascinating environmental stories of Michigan’s changing landscape.  They are stories of urban sprawl, forest management, gas exploration, waste disposal, recreational impacts on sand dunes.
We’ve already run some of these features; stay tuned for more.
Unlike Landscope, the other feature – Skywatch – is a separate series that looks to the future. It examines the the use of unmanned aircraft to explore the environment.
This story is part of Great Lakes Echo's 'Skywatch' series (UAV Photo: APV Hovershots)
Right now the civilian use of these drones is severely restricted.
But there’s a lot going on surrounding the promise and peril of using these craft – so much so that their widespread use seems inevitable.
We’ve also already run some of these features. Stay tuned for more.
Meanwhile, we’ll continue to get even higher with features created around images taken from satellites and the International Space Station. Check out our longstanding  satellite watch feature.
All of this is to say that Ralph was right about seeking that high ground. It provides context and understanding and a lot of great environmental news stories.
Smart guy.
He was also right about eating well on the company dime.
David Poulson is the senior associate director of Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. This post also appeared at GreatLakesEcho.org.