World Wildlife Fund

Earth Month is winding down — but there's still time to show up for nature. I spent my hour cleaning up the Potomac River with World Wildlife Fund 's Give an Hour for Earth challenge. And I'm asking you to do the same before April ends. Last year, people across the U.S. gave over 127,000 hours to our planet. Every hour logged is a message: nature has our back, and we have nature's. Log your hour here: https://lnkd.in/e6C6NJ8i

The next generation of environmental storytellers gives me hope. They care about authenticity in their storytelling. Cue the trumpets! On Friday I co-produced a panel discussion at World Wildlife Fund for around 80 students from across the US who were participating in the Planet Forward Summit with Frank Sesno and The George Washington University . Following a panel with some of WWF’s ace storytellers ( Loren Pritchett , Alex MacLennan , Bex Young and Zac Shamah ), we had an enlightening Q&A. Among what the students asked: · How do you go into reporting without a preconceived narrative? · How do you draw out emotion without it feeling forced? · How do you make someone feel comfortable in front of a camera? · How do you keep a story honest and real while still making people care? Being a reporter and storyteller comes with a lot of responsibility to build trust, be patient, and tell someone’s story without pushing your own agenda. The latter is hard, especially when you’re telling environmental stories on topics you personally feel passionate about. And if you work for a nonprofit doing good work, your mandate is to tell that story. How do you balance the need to tell the story your organization needs to tell but also be open to the on-the-ground realities, like, maybe local people don’t think the work is doing the good you thought it was? Alex was great at telling how he remains open to hearing that and doesn’t shy away from including that in his stories. No organization is 100% effective and perfect, and the ups and downs of the work are expected and real. No need to sugar coat it. I loved how this next generation of storytellers really zoomed in on the process. They were not focused on a glitzy final product they could post on TikTok with a humble brag and an emoji. They truly cared about the process and their delicate role in telling a genuine story. No doubt you are also becoming worried and dismayed about living in a world with an increasing amount of inauthentic content, and a lack of care about our environmental crisis. They are too. I feel really hopeful about that. #Storytelling #EnvironmentalJournalism #Communications Sarah Fogel