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Climate change is bringing unprecedented heat, drought, and other forms of extreme weather, with corresponding disruptions to security. Meanwhile, necessary climate policies, though salutary, pose their own socioeconomic and geopolitical challenges. Intensifying climate impacts, and the policy responses that must accompany them, create openings for bad actors to spread mis- and disinformation, affecting climate policy and undermining security.
HEATED analyzed 133 breaking news stories about recent climate-fueled weather in the United States. The results were dismal—but there were some bright spots.
Communicating heat-related risks to the public is increasingly important for both their own protection and to encourage mitigation policies. To test the impact of the Climate Shift Index (CSI), which quantifies how climate change affects the likelihood of extreme weather, an experiment was conducted with 3,902 American adults. Participants were informed that climate change made the July 2023 U.S. heat wave at least five times more likely. Variations in CSI wording and explanations were tested. All treatments increased the belief that climate change made the heat wave, and heat waves in general, more likely.
Recent research suggests that personal experience of extreme weather has only a small, short-lived effect on what people think about climate change. If they had help connecting the dots – that is, if scientific linkages were clearly articulated and reported more often and more accurately in the media – perhaps the effect of extreme weather on peoples’ views would be greater, leading to better planning to adapt to changes, improved behavioural change, and more action on climate change. This guide makes practical recommedations for how to better communicate the linkage between extreme events and climate change harnessing progress in the…
This report is based on analysis spanning quantitative and qualitative research with nearly 72,000 Americans to better understand perception of extreme weather and climate change. It found that half of the respondents believe the changes to be “natural.” Using fresh language in these particularly 'teachable' moments can build understanding around the problem and generate enthusiasm for the solutions. After testing over 200 extreme weather message territories, the researchers found a platform that outperforms: “Unnatural disasters”. This simple phrase opens the door to conversations about the true cause: fossil fuels. It’s rooted in provocative but politically neutral language that can capture…
This study explores how Australian climate action NGOs communicated about climate change on Twitter during the 2019–2020 Australian Black Summer bushfires. Overall the organizations did not inaccurately claim that climate change causes bushfires (only 1% of total tweets). However, only 15% of the tweets mentioned non-climate change factors (such as firefighting) that shape bushfire risks. Fourty-two percent of tweets mentioned climate change but did not explain how it relates to bushfires. The study concludes that the most holistic communications about potential risk factors would incorporate the role of climate change in combination with other dynamics that affect the impacts of…
This paper investigates the extent to which media coverage of Australia's 2019/2020 bushfires (Black Summer) over a period of months functioned both to precipitate a climate change epiphany and also to support refutation of the connection between catastrophic fires and the climate crisis. As the disaster unfolded, denialist discourses in some media outlets sought to veil this revelation by providing alternative explanations for the fires. Misinformation originating from social media also contributed to this obscuration.
This article provides guidance for reporting on climate change and extreme heat. It emphasizes that extreme heat is something journalists should learn about and prepare given the frequency and regularity of these events around the world. It also points that journalists should focus on local impacts, include diverse voices, and avoid sensationalism.
As one of Australia’s most influential voices on climate, Lesley Hughes has thought deeply about how to talk about the crisis and says hope has a key role to play.
In the aftermaths of hurricane Otis, reporter Emily Atking, calls on journalists and meteorologists to go one step further when reporting on disastrous weather phenomenons that are “connected to climate change" by including that these events are a symptom of fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial agriculture. Being explicit about what’s causing the climate crisis provides readers with the knowledge they need to make truly informed decisions.