Pitfall wins at the 2024 NASW Science in Society Journalism Awards and 2024 SCWE Competition

Congratulations Christopher Pollon, winner of the Book Category at the 2024 NASW Science in Society (SIS) Journalism Awards in the United States.

Published in Australia by UQP in 2024, Pitfallwas first published in the US with Greystone Books in 2023. Pitfall: The Race to Mine the World’s Most Vulnerable Places captures the quest to mine industrial metals essential for modern life and clean energy — and the costs to local people and environments.

The 2024 NASW Science in Society judges describe Pitfall as a smartly written, forceful, and, above all, ambitious look at what may become a signature environmental challenge of our century.

"Pitfall is the kind of detailed, thoroughly reported journalism that we just don’t see enough these days. Christopher Pollon has taken on an enormous topic with a similarly daunting reporting effort, bouncing around the world to show us the many faces of mining in the modern era, as seen by the local communities that are most affected by it."

First awarded in 1972, the NASW Science and Society Journalism Awards were established to recognize investigative or interpretive reporting about the sciences and their impact on society. Intended to encourage critical, probing work that would not receive an award from an interest group, NASW presents these journalism awards without subsidy from any professional or commercial interest.

Pitfall is also the First Place recipient of the 2024 Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society Competition for British Columbian Authors of Nonfiction. Winners were announced on Aug. 24 in the Book Awards for BC Authors during a ceremony held at the Gibsons Public Market. The contest was introduced last summer by the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society and this year attracted nearly 100 titles submitted by publishers across Canada.

Congratulations, Christopher!