The Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual look-ahead to environment and energy news in 2020 drew a crowd of some 300 (with more than 200 watching the live webcast) at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C., Jan. 24.

And the overwhelming topic of discussion — climate change.

The subject came up at the start of the afternoon gathering, with an appearance by headliner Ban Ki-moon, the former United Nations Secretary-General who helped lead the world’s nations to the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Just one day before, with climate change and nuclear weapons serving as what he called “the two most serious existential threats” to humanity, Ban had helped unveil an update of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists symbolic “Doomsday Clock.” The clock’s ticking closer to midnight, Ban said, “really highlights the urgency and seriousness and danger humanity is now facing.” 

But according to the former U.N. leader, while people automatically fear nuclear threats, not so with climate change, adding: “Never in the past have we experienced such devastating climate change as now. You journalists have a critically important role to convey the truth, so that you can hold political leaders … to account.”

Continue reading at the Society of Environmental Journalists.