Climate storytelling: a journalist’s perspective

At Mongabay-India, we believe climate storytelling must begin with credibility, not noise. In an era of constant information and competing narratives, environmental journalism does not serve the public by being louder than everyone else. Its value lies in being careful, evidence-driven and consistent — shedding light on complex issues rather than generating heat around them.

For us, climate reporting is fundamentally about people. The impacts of climate change are experienced in livelihoods, health, food systems and local environments. Telling human stories is therefore essential. But there is an important line that journalism must respect: communities facing environmental stress should not be reduced to symbols of suffering or used as pity-driven clickbait. Responsible storytelling focuses on lived experience through ground reporting, by trying to understand how people respond to environmental change. 

In mainstream media, climate change coverage tends to be reactive. Air pollution becomes headline news during Delhi’s winter smog. Floods dominate coverage during the monsoon. Once the immediate crisis fades, so does the attention. The role of Mongabay-India’s journalism is to maintain a steady stream of stories that keep public discourse alive, even when the crisis is not trending. We do this by reporting stories that are easy to overlook. Pollution is not only a Delhi problem — towns like Byrnihat on the Assam–Meghalaya border face severe air quality challenges that rarely enter national debates. The impacts of air pollution extend beyond respiratory disease to conditions such as diabetes. Extreme heat does not affect everyone equally; street vendors and gig workers experience it very differently from those working inside climate-controlled offices. And biodiversity stories are not confined to distant forests — they are unfolding inside India’s rapidly growing cities, where green spaces and urban wildlife shape everyday life.

Climate storytelling also cannot separate environmental change from questions of governance, development and power. Journalism’s role is not advocacy, but accountability. By maintaining a steady tone and grounding stories in evidence, it is possible to examine policies, decisions and trade-offs without slipping into activism. In doing so, journalism can remain a trusted voice of reason in a crowded and often polarised media landscape.

Another critical part of our work involves bridging science and society. India’s climate and environmental research ecosystem is expanding rapidly, producing valuable insights that often remain locked behind academic paywalls. By reporting on emerging science in accessible ways, journalism can bring this knowledge to practitioners, policymakers and citizens who need it most.

Finally, climate journalism must report both progress and its limits. Stories of climate resilience, adaptation and innovation are important, but so are the gaps, failures and trade-offs that shape real outcomes. Telling both sides of that story is essential if journalism is to contribute meaningfully to climate action in practice.

Written by Sandhya Sekar, Head of Mongabay India