How narwhals change the ecosystem

Wanna know a secret? The dream for The Narwhal grew out of frustration. A lot of frustration. 

Why were there so many business reporters in Canada and so few environment reporters? Why did so much media coverage of the natural world fail to foster greater understanding of issues, instead further polarizing Canadians? Why were the voices of people impacted the most by changes to the natural world so often left out of stories?

We believed journalism about the natural world could be riveting, beautiful and embrace complexity. And, as it turns out, so did you — and hundreds of thousands of other readers. But we’re 182 members short of our budget target for September — and we need you to join us.

I’m reminded of the impact our members make as we mark the one-year anniversary of The Narwhal’s crackerjack Ontario bureau. Our team has produced more than 100 stories and filed nearly as many access to information requests this past year, resulting in the release of previously secret documents that revealed risks to wetlands, waterways and endangered species. The most notable thing though might be how the mere introduction of The Narwhal to the Ontario media world has changed the ecosystem. 

“At first, we were often the only journalists in the room to really press ministers about the environment,” reporter Emma McIntosh told me. “Over time I’ve noticed that just by being there, we spark interest from other outlets — those reporters see the importance of the questions we’re asking and start following up on them as well, resulting in more environmental and energy coverage than we saw before.”

And it’s not just in Ontario: our reporters across the Prairies and B.C. are bringing climate and environment issues to the forefront — and we need your support to keep moving the needle.

In the past few months alone, we’ve collaborated with The Guardian, the Toronto Star, the Winnipeg Free Press and The Local for in-depth and investigative pieces, while our work has been referenced by outlets including CBC, The Globe and Mail and Politico.

The power of The Narwhal is to expand the boundaries of what’s possible — and what’s expected of all news organizations. 

We can only do this work because roughly one in 30 readers makes the leap to give what they can to support our work, and we need 182 of you to join us this month.

Thanks for helping us change what’s possible.

Emma Gilchrist
Editor-in-chief

P.S. We’re running up against a September deadline to make our budget numbers add up. Will you be one of 182 who step up today to chip in what you can to support independent journalism?