Enjoying sweater weather? I hope so. You earned it after living through the worst summer imaginable.
The hottest three months in history. A deadly inferno in Hawaii. Canadian smoke blanketing half the country. A punishing hurricane in Florida.
The science is telling us to expect more of the same. That a warming planet makes extreme events, like these, more likely. It’s even making our winters warmer and weirder.
Climate change is one of the most important stories of our time and who better to tell it than local TV news, the most trusted source of information in America with the largest audience, according to the Knight Foundation and Gallup.
But if you want more information about how a changing climate impacts our way of life, chances are you won’t get it from tonight’s local news.
For 25 years I’ve been a local TV reporter, in recent years specializing in covering climate. I’ve seen how many of my colleagues are afraid to talk about climate change on air. I know why.
They avoid it out of a fear of getting harassed, getting the facts wrong and losing the ratings war. For the health, safety and well-being of our local communities, it’s critical for all of us to understand the problem and how to fix it.
Let’s start with newsroom managers and their fear that a story will be wrong or imbalanced. When a script comes across their desk, no matter the subject, they are trained to ensure it includes multiple points of view. While including the voices of those who are for and against is needed for many stories, that’s not the case when covering climate change.
The fact is more than 99% of published climate research comes to the same consensus: Emissions from our cars and factories make the planet warmer. And warmer temperatures juice the odds of extreme weather.
I love the slam-dunk way NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel puts it: “We are more sure that greenhouse gas emissions cause climate change than we are that smoking causes cancer.” And when was the last time anyone saw a TV station give a point-counterpoint on the pros and cons of smoking?
CBS News Bay Area reporter Juliette Goodrich explains why San Francisco’s Ferry Building needs to be raised due to rising sea levels. (Courtesy: CBS KPIX-TV)
In my experience, hardly any local news managers have training in the basics of climate science. Stations need to make sure they get it. This will lead directly to more accurate stories and more accurate beliefs about the environment by the public.
Harassment is the next challenge.
Until recently, Iowa meteorologist Chris Gloninger made it a point to talk about climate change on the air. But this summer he quit his TV job partly because an aggressive viewer threatened to come to his house to give him “an Iowan welcome (he) will never forget.”
Lately, on social media, I’ve also talked a lot about the connections between climate change and extreme weather. What I’ve gotten in return is a dumpster full of hostile comments spilled across my digital front lawn, like this: “I love getting drunk at parties and punching climate activists.” Not my idea of a fun evening.
To get beyond the fear, local reporters and meteorologists need to understand that most of the noise and hostility around climate change, while unsettling, comes from a very small group of people.
Our attackers, according to research from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, make up just 10% of the public. Yale calls this group “dismissives”; they are people who don’t believe climate change is happening and frequently endorse conspiracy theories.
Reporters and meteorologists cannot let themselves be silenced by the fear of a loud minority. Unless it sounds like someone is truly interested in a civil discussion, best to just ignore the comments.
Perhaps the biggest fear is losing audience.
At a local station, the buck stops at the desk of the general manager. The GM’s job is to maximize ad revenue in the market by building and retaining audience. When reporters and meteorologists get bombed with harsh comments, she wants to know why viewers are mad and how to put the fire out.
In the case of climate change, the ideal response from a GM is to have the newsroom’s back. And the Yale research offers assurance. It found 70% of Americans are either cautious, concerned or alarmed about climate change.
In other words, people are interested. So, the station that reports how climate change impacts the lives of its viewers can create a more informed public and may even be rewarded with a growing, loyal audience.
CBS National Environmental Correspondent David Schechter reports from Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawaii about measuring rising carbon levels in the atmosphere. (Photo by Chance Horner)
I work at CBS News and Stations, where I’m seeing a growing investment from our leaders into climate reporting with an emphasis on giving our audiences more connection, context, and clarity. One way we’re doing that is providing in-house training for reporters, meteorologists and news managers in partnership with the nonprofit media consortium Covering Climate Now.
We have a lot of work to do, but we’re seeing progress.
This summer, one of our meteorologists in Dallas started talking to his audience about the link between climate change and extreme Texas heat. Immediately, a viewer taunted him on Facebook: “You’ll be ridiculed on social media just like Chris Gloninger in Iowa was.”
But he knew not to let the comments stop him. “I stepped out on the limb and am not surprised about the responses. I am having anxiety over this. … I feel it is going to be a tough battle here in Texas,” he told me. But, he added, “The data showing there is a very loud but small minority of deniers eased my fears just a bit.”
Just as encouraging, his general manager sent this message of support to the meteorologist: “All we can do is present them with fact-based, accurate reporting and then let them make their own informed decisions. … You have allies on this journey and leaning on each other is critical.”
Addressing the existential threats of climate change requires all of us to work from a common set of facts. That’s already a challenge in today’s world. But it’s only made harder when the people charged with shining a light in the darkness hesitate to even turn it on.
