- Peter Dykstra was an award-winning environmental journalist who used humor and wit to engage people on critical environmental issues.
- Despite becoming paralyzed in the lower half of his body and requiring extensive care, Peter continued to contribute to environmental journalism, always maintaining his sense of humor.
Peter Dykstra dedicated his life to telling the untold stories of the environment. He did it in a way that was informative and clever but also funny, frequently pointing out the absurdities of the political landscape that makes progress on the environment so difficult.
I knew Peter well from my time as co-host and editor of the public radio program Living on Earth. Peter was a weekly contributor to the show. Most weeks, I recorded a segment with him that should have taken 15 minutes, but I’d always budget at least 30. The first half of the call I could look forward to a chat that would wander from poking fun at his home state of New Jersey in the U.S., to an update on the pollen situation in his new home in Georgia.
Peter was always good for a story, “Bobby, have you ever wondered what happened to the solar panels Jimmy Carter had on the roof of the White House? Well….”
While he was at Greenpeace, Peter filed a Freedom of Information Act request and tracked down Carter’s solar panels to a Raiders of the Lost Ark-like government warehouse, and a small college in Maine.
Peter got started with environmental work with Greenpeace where he created the organization’s U.S. media program. He went on to work as the executive producer of CNN’s science, tech and weather unit. He was the deputy director at Pew Charitable Trusts for a bit and then became the publisher of Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate in 2011. He won multiple awards for his work including an Emmy and a Peabody.
By the time I met Peter in 2017, he was paralyzed in the lower half of his body, the unlucky result of an infection in his spine. Peter spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair and required around the clock help in his home. The care he needed is considered a luxury by American insurance companies and forced Peter to eat through much of his life savings. Still, Peter somehow kept his sense of humor through the most challenging part of his life.
In a 2023 Facebook post, the 6th anniversary of losing his ability to walk, he wrote, “We have a community of eight or so wheelchair people in my building. Every Friday night, we play bumper cars. The quadriplegic guy takes a beating. But he takes it out on the blind guy. Much of my time is taken up by my two pet causes: expanding diversity in Motown by becoming the first white, disabled member of the Temptations. And secondly, getting the Grammys to establish an annual award for the most excruciating hold music for banks, insurers, drugmakers, doctors and others.”
A few years ago, Peter scored an interview with Jim Inhofe, the climate change-denying Senator from Oklahoma who said climate change was “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” The interview was set for 10:00 am on Nov. 17, 2034, Inhofe’s 100th birthday. Peter wanted to check in with the Senator and see how that hoax was working out. Inhofe died a few weeks before Peter. When Inhofe passed, I thought, “Oh, I should call Peter!” But I didn’t. I got busy with something and then the moment passed.
I now wish I had taken the time to check in with him. I’m sure he would have had a story for me and made me laugh. He always did.
Banner image: Peter Dykstra, courtesy of Inside Climate News.