Accurate media coverage is critical for climate action. New outlets must better cover the links between climate change and extreme weather.
Friend, millions of people across the country have been stuck inside this summer, canceling hikes, birthday parties, and barbecues, because going outside means risking our health.
The Pacific Northwest is currently blanketed with wildfire smoke and huge parts of our country have been facing unbreathable air and unbearable heat in the last month. I spent the last few weeks indoors in Denver, CO due to the record number of 90+ degree days. I'm lucky to have a home with AC, but too many of my friends and neighbors do not.
Last year, the watchdog group Media Matters found that
just four percent of national TV news segments mentioned climate change during the record-breaking heat dome.1 And a recent report found that US outlets are covering the climate crisis far less frequently than other countries.2
This is a real problem.
News outlets play a critical role in informing us about current events, shaping our understanding of the world around us, and influencing the policies that affect our lives.
Mainstream news must consistently cover the connection between heat waves, wildfires, storms, and other unnatural disasters and human-caused climate change.
The science is crystal clear. Climate change is making extreme heat and other "weather" more frequent and more severe. Yet according to Grist, global media coverage of climate change has dropped 38 percent in the last five years.3
When major news outlets fail to name the connection between extreme weather events and climate change, we pay the price. Lack of awareness slows our transition to clean, renewable energy. It means our families will continue to feel the effects of climate change through price hikes for our insurance, food, energy bills, healthcare costs, and more. When people don't see climate coverage in the news, the issue becomes less salient, making it difficult to build public support for policy change.
Personal messages make a big difference! Have you experienced extreme weather impacts? Share a sentence or two about your experience to make your letter more powerful.
✍️ "The goal of climate denial is not actually denial. It's doubt and delay. That is why the fossil-fuel industry created climate denial in the first place. It was never to get everybody to deny climate change; it was to make climate change too politically controversial to touch, so that people just wouldn't feel comfortable talking about it, and so that would just fade into the background." - Emily Atkin, Heated5
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