Environmental reporting often begins with a simple proposition: that facts still matter. At a time when climate change and biodiversity loss have become fixtures of public debate, the work of journalism can appear both urgent and increasingly difficult. Scientific evidence accumulates, while political responses lag. Between the two sits a kind of reporting that tries to translate research, policy and lived experience into something readers can grasp.
Much of that work is incremental. A story may start with a field biologist’s findings, a community confronting a development project, or a government decision that reshapes the fate of a forest or fishery. The reporting rarely resolves the underlying problem. Its purpose is more modest: to document what is happening and explain why it matters.
For John Cannon, a staff features writer at Mongabay, that principle guides nearly every assignment. “Evidence-based reporting [is] at the heart of what we do at Mongabay,” he says. “I believe it’s perhaps the most profound way we can contribute to making things better.”
Cannon’s route into journalism began with an academic interest in the natural world. He studied biology at Ohio State University and later earned a graduate degree in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Along the way, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, an experience that introduced him to the economic and social pressures shaping conservation in parts of the Sahel.
He began contributing to Mongabay in 2014 and joined the organization full-time two years later. Since then, his reporting has taken him across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Much of his work lies at the intersection of science and daily life. Conservation research, he notes, only becomes meaningful when it connects to the lives of people dealing with environmental change.
One investigation he recalls with particular satisfaction examined a controversial carbon credit agreement in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. His reporting for Mongabay revealed details of a deal that had been negotiated largely out of public view. The coverage prompted scrutiny from Indigenous leaders, state officials and international organizations.
Cannon describes his work more simply. His time, he says, is spent “connecting conservation science with the daily lives of people affected by the problems that face us today” and “finding ways to illustrate how interconnected we all are.”
Journalism, he adds, remains worth the effort. “There is a hunger for great stories, and many people are doing compelling work. Don’t be afraid to be one of them.”
Banner image: Cannon hiking through Dogon country in Mali, 2011. Image courtesy of Anne-Claire Benoit.
