By Sonni Efron
Jonah M. Kessel and Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times have won the Innovating Storytelling Award from the National Press Foundation for a groundbreaking piece that made invisible methane emissions visible to readers for the first time.
Kessel and Tabuchi traveled to West Texas to document how natural gas facilities were emitting large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. They took a plane crammed with scientific equipment over the Permian oil fields and identified six methane super-emitters. They then used an infrared camera to reveal a powerful climate change threat that had previously been invisible to the naked eye.
This research, “along with an examination of lobbying activities by the companies that own the sites, shows how the energy industry is seeking and winning looser federal regulations on methane, a major contributor to global warming,” the journalists wrote.
“There is no question that methane gas emissions are a huge problem, accelerating climate change at a critical moment for our planet,” said judge Rafael Lorente. “The journalists’ problem is telling that story in a compelling way. The New York Times used airborne sensors and a specially-built camera to show the emissions in dramatic and disturbing images that made obvious the problem before us.”
The National Press Foundation established the Innovating Storytelling Award in 2015 to recognize digital journalism that re-invents the way stories are told. Judges take into consideration the originality of the nominated presentation, how re-imagined delivery vehicles enhanced the audience’s understanding of the underlying journalism, and creativity in applying tools or technologies.
The award has evolved dramatically over the years, noted judge Jim Brady.
“The efforts that win this award one year usually become routine within one or two years after, which means the creative bar keeps getting raised,” Brady said. “The New York Times easily cleared that bar with a visually stunning effort about the methane leak problem we face in this country.
“The visuals at the heart of this story — acquired via a custom-built camera — passed the ultimate test for this award: It told the story effectively, and in a way words could never match.”
Methane levels have soared since 2007 for reasons that still aren’t fully understood. The Times piece helped to shed light on the phenomenon and demonstrated how fracking natural-gas production was a prime suspect, even as the administration was considering weakening the rules on methane emission.
Judge Heather Dahl called the story “a model of how we as journalists can use new technology to reimagine investigative journalism and visual storytelling,” and to validate or invalidate claims.
“The New York Times team radically transformed the way we see how methane can leak from facilities and understand the quantitative measures to explaining the impact such leaks have on the environment around us,” she said.
