The new Reporter’s Guide to Climate Adaptation from the Reynolds Journalism Institute is designed as a beat memo for both neophyte and seasoned journalists.

Context, context, context! The primer provides a guide to terms and issues, essential background information and a searchable database of more than 200 sources on climate change and adaptation. Begin with the three-minute animated video about the causes and impact of climate change and why we should care. The timing of the guide’s release couldn’t be better with 120 world leaders gathering for two weeks in Paris from November 30 to come up with a new climate change accord to reduce greenhouse gases.     

“At every scale, communities around the United States and the world are having to prepare themselves for a seemingly endless array of worrisome climate impacts. And it’s a tale we journalists will be telling for years to come,” A. Adam Glenn wrote in a blog post. He worked with the RJI team that created the guide.  

“We believe it’s the first time such information has been so well organized for newsrooms. This is not just fodder for environmental journalists. It’s meant to help reporters from every beat — whether business, politics, local government, religion, even sports and recreation” said Glenn, founder and editor of the experimental climate adaptation news project AdaptNY.org, and editor of the quarterly journal of the Society of Environmental Journalists. 

The new guide offers ideas on how to develop and approach stories about climate adaption and also includes brief case studies of some especially effective adaptation reporting.