Visiting these sites recently, I thought a roundup of my favourite consumer-oriented resources (as opposed to academic or industry/business oriented) might make a good article. So here we go. (Quick caveat, this list is not exhaustive, just the sites I use the most.)
No bias here of course, but the Planet Ark website should be everyone’s first stop for news! A highlight is that so much of the news and articles take a positive approach.
The climate council website is a good resource for global news from an Australian site. News and story topics are accessible, typically ‘real world’ and cover a broad range. For example, from How do you take care of your pets during a heatwave? through to Renewable energy storage target is critical to deliver reliable and affordable clean energy for Australians.
Grist describes itself as a not-for-profit, independent media organisation, dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Its solution-focused reporting is my favourite part, with stories like: From fiction to reality: Could airships be the key to greener travel? . It makes a nice change from reading reportage that is focused on the problem-only issues.
No surprise that the focus of this news site is sustainability. It presents daily news and positive articles on all things sustainability, including renewable energy, net zero, and ESG.
From net-zero to renewable energy, ESG to sustainable sourcing, they’ve got your sustainability news covered - and always with a positive angle.
Treehugger is one of my favourite sites because it is just so accessible and real world. It presents news stories but also talks about how to bring ecofriendly behaviours into your life and home (for example, how to find the most ecofriendly doona). It also has sections on eco-design and animals, which is right up my alley.
New Scientist and Scientific American
These are both science-focused magazines (digital and print) that also have great articles on their website. Being science related, they cover much more than just environment. I usually access the digital magazines through my library account and never fail to learn or be inspired by something in the columns.
NY Times and The Guardian
Much like the magazines mentioned above, the NY Times and The Guardian are newspapers that also have websites and that cover much more than the environment, but their environmental reportage is excellent – broad, unbiased, very accessible and informative to the layperson.
Ecowatch is a really comprehensive environmental news site, chock full of articles, that also presents product reviews, solutions, and guides. They state that their goal is to inspire and educate everyone from the layperson through to the veteran environmental activist.
For most of us National Geographic is an institution and a household name. If you were like me, it gave you your first glimpse of some of the most beautiful, remote parts and people of our world. In all the decades it has been around it has never lost its purpose: to educate, inspire and inform. It covers travel, history, culture as well as the environment but all its stories make you love the planet we live on even more. The only caveat with National Geographic is that a lot of its content is available through subscription – just like it used to be.
Other notable mentions . . .
Environmental news network – icon, strongly research based.
Science Daily – science-based research news.
RealClimate – climate science from climate scientists.
Sierra Club Magazine – The magazine/website of stalwart environmental group The Sierra Club, it has a heavy US focus.
Green Matters/Plant Based News/VegNews - These are high on my list because I am vegan, but they often have climate based news as the two issues are so interrelated.
Planet Ark does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the original information and encourages readers to check the references before using this information for their own purposes.