By Caroline Grass
September 8, 2023
Portions of the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., flood daily due to rising water levels stemming from climate change. The flooding is harming the historic cherry blossoms surrounding the basin and visitors cannot walk on sections of paths. (Photo by Caroline Grass/Chesapeake Bay Program)
ITHACA — This semester I’m covering the environment for local news website Ithaca Week and I’ll be writing stories that highlight restoration, preservation, science and innovation efforts in and around Ithaca and Tompkins County. I’m passionate about protecting the environment and I feel the stories I write can help bring awareness to initiatives and work being done to protect the natural resources in the county and region.
I’ve covered environmental issues through my time at Ithaca College and during the reporting and writing process for each story, I work through the challenge of trying to make the issue accessible and engaging to read about.
I spoke with Anthony DiRenzo, professor of writing at Ithaca College, about how to effectively write about science and the environment. He talked about the history of science writing and explained how as the field of science professionalized and the language became more specialized, the dialogue between scientists and the general public changed.
“Things became sealed off and scientists were only speaking to scientists and not speaking to ordinary people,” DiRenzo said. “That then becomes a way in which scientific language becomes more unintelligible. Scientists now are realizing that they have to talk to the public in a way that they had not before … in order to bring science back down to earth to make people see that it's part of everyday life.”
Science is a part of every aspect of our lives and core principles ground us, yet it is important to realize that science is always evolving and changing. Theories can be wrong and paradigm shifts in thinking while painful to come to terms with, move us forward. That’s looking at science and the scientific process very broadly, but as a journalist, I use this idea to remind myself to keep asking questions to understand what experts know and want to share with the public but more importantly to grasp what we don’t know yet.
I like how journalist Ed Yong wrote about science in his 2021 piece “What Even Counts as Science Writing Anymore?” for The Atlantic.
“The best science writers learn that science is not a procession of facts and breakthroughs, but an erratic stumble toward gradually diminished uncertainty; that peer-reviewed publications are not gospel and even prestigious journals are polluted by nonsense; and that the scientific endeavor is plagued by all-too-human failings such as hubris,” Yong wrote.
As I embark on writing four stories and blogging about my beat this semester, I hope to continue to become a better science writer. I look forward to writing about scientific innovation and will strive to craft compelling, human stories that will empower members of my community to stay steadfast in their hope that we can still preserve and improve the natural world around us. I want this hope to strengthen our collective resolve to continue to ask tough questions, hold leaders and companies accountable and compel our government to make meaningful policy changes to help safeguard our planet against the worsening climate crisis we face.
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