About Eco Files
Hello! I’m Alleen Brown, an independent investigative journalist. I dig deep to uncover the tactics used by powerful state and corporate actors to advance projects that harm communities as well as the land, water, and climate they rely on. Since I’m a freelancer, this newsletter is the only place where you can keep up with all of my work.
What to expect:
—A post every time I publish an investigation
—A monthly round-up of things I’m thinking about
—Occasional “cutting room floor” posts, featuring details from my reporting that you’ll only find here.
I’m also working on a big project that I’m not ready to talk about, and eventually you’ll find updates about that here, too.
You can also find me on Twitter @AlleenBrown
A full (almost) archive of my work is here: alleenbrown.com
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Email: alleen.brown56@gmail.com
Signal: (612) 361-9504
More about my work
Over the past eight years I’ve become obsessed with the ways that environmental crises intersect with criminalization — and the implications that has for democracy and public health.
That has meant investigating:
—Petrochemical corps working with policymakers to pass anti-protest laws.
—PR firms branding environmental organizations as extremists.
—Pipeline companies paying police to protect their projects from protest.
—An oil industry security contractor's infiltration of an Indigenous-led environmental defense movement.
It has also meant looking into how people who are criminalized — such as immigrants, people of color, and unhoused people — are impacted by environmental crises.
For example:
—For The Intercept and Grist I’ve written numerous stories about how the climate crisis is impacting people who are incarcerated.
—For The Guardian I uncovered wine industry efforts to suppress farmworkers organizing for wildfire protections.
—With the International Women’s Media Foundation, I investigated why a Guatemalan land defender was forced to flee her country in the midst of efforts to stop a Canadian mine.
There are not a lot of us out there specializing in this kind of coverage, and I plan to keep doing it. I’m also hoping to use this newsletter to help me keep track of how these kinds of issues are playing out internationally.