DOHA: Students enrolled in the advanced online storytelling course at Northwestern University in Qatar are launching a multimedia news website www.qatarvironment.org, which investigates Qatar’s environmental issues and the initiatives the government is taking to tackle them.
“In 2012, Qatar hosted the COP18 conference, which I thought was really informative,” said Christina Paschyn, instructor of the NU-Q journalism course. “Qatar has the highest per capita carbon emission in the world, and I think it is important for people to cover the story and what Qatar is doing to lower its environmental footprint.”
According to the World Bank, Qatar emits an estimated 40.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person. One of the steps Qatar is taking to tackle this issue is to build one of the first passivhauses in the region
Despite Qatar’s sustainability efforts, overfishing and overconsumption of energy are underlying concerns that the website investigates.
The Peninsula
