Having witnessed the damaging antics of carbon cowboys and, more recently, self-interested greenwashing industry in REDD+ forest projects in PNG, I was sceptical and intrigued about the notion of “high integrity” carbon. So, I went to the Solomon Islands to see what it looked like on the ground. This issue is one of the most … Continue reading
Author Archives: Jo Chandler
Melbourne Press Club Quills finalist ‘Best Feature’
Very chuffed to be a finalist in the 2023 Melbourne Press Club Quills Best Feature for my story “Climate justice in the Pacific” for The Monthly magazine. Congratulations to fellow finalists (below) in this and all categories. And good luck also to our Unimelb Master of Journalism alum and superstar talent Sasha Gattermayr who is … Continue reading
Preparing for the next big drought in PNG
In late 2022 I did a couple of field trips in PNG exploring questions of climate change, climate justice & locally lead responses to changing conditions. As well as visiting coastal areas, where rising seas are the urgent issue, I went to the highlands where shifts in rainfall and conditions can wipe out crops and … Continue reading
Terms of development: Reflections on the Australasian AID Conference
At the end of particularly gruelling teaching semester, I shot up to Canberra for the Australasian Aid and International Development conference hosted by the Development Policy Centre at ANU. Very grateful for this opportunity to reconnect with some Pacific and development experts and longtime ‘contacts’, and to think about issues in the region. This story for … Continue reading
Australia Museum Eureka Prize for Science Journalism (third time lucky!)
So excited and honored to be awarded the Australia Museum Eureka Prize for Science Journalism in Sydney last week. The prize was for my 2022 piece for Griffith Review on the quest for a million year old ice core – Buried Treasure: A Journey Into Deep Time. It’s a story about both the smallness of … Continue reading
Best Australian Science Writing 2023
It’s always a thrill to have my work included in this fabulous annual anthology published by NewSouth press. Now in its 13th year, this is the eighth edition where I’ve been lucky enough make an appearance – seven as a storyteller, one as editor. As a special bonus this year, one of my recent students … Continue reading
Finalist: Eureka Prize for Science Journalism
Absolutely thrilled to be announced as a finalist for the 2023 Australia Museum Eureka Prizes – the Oscars of science! – in the science journalism category. The nomination is for a story that has been a big part of my reporting life over many years – the quest for the million year ice core: Buried … Continue reading
Confessions of a parachute journalist
(Photo: Vlad Sokhin) I’ve been travelling and storytelling from Papua New Guinea since 2009. I first visited for The Age/SMH, reporting on the catastrophic maternal death rate, and on the impacts of the then new and much hyped ExxonMobil-lead PNGLNG project in the highlands. On numerous return visits, I’ve circled back often to go deeper … Continue reading
Climate storytelling: On cause and effect
(Photograph: Angela Wylie) Over much of the past 15 years or so, I imagined I had developed two main ‘streams’ of storytelling expertise and networks. One could be broadly categorised as human rights, encompassing stories on health, disease, women and children, aid and development; the other was on climate science, often tracking scientists to their … Continue reading
On wreckage and reckoning: A journey to PNG
“It strikes me, after 14 years (on and off) reporting from all over PNG, that climate damage is the most tangible return many grassroots people have ever known on those gazillions of gallons of extracted fossil-fuel wealth.” I spent a couple of weeks last year visiting three villages in PNG dealing with climate impacts – … Continue reading