InsideClimate News has been named a finalist for the prestigious 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for revealing that Exxon understood of the climate risks in fossil fuels as far back as the 1970s, but chose to invest millions in climate denial rather than taking positive action.
The reports, the result of an eight-month investigation by reporters Neela Banerjee, John H. Cushman Jr., David Hasemyer, and Lisa Song, “describes how Exxon conducted cutting-edge climate research decades ago and later pivoted to the forefront of climate denial, manufacturing doubt about the scientific consensus that its own scientists had confirmed,” ICN writes.
The revelations sparked an investigation by 17 state attorneys-general and produced five (more) journalism awards for ICN: The National Press Foundation’s Stokes Award for energy reporting; finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Journalism; the Izzy Award for Excellence by Independent Media; the Scripps Howard Award for Environmental Reporting; and a Society for American Business Editors and Writers award for best investigation by a digital news site.
Pulitzer’s gold medal went to the Associated Press for an investigation of slave labour in the seafood industry in Asia.
