Did we forget about climate change?
by: Jolanka Kocianová Vuong
reading time: 3:40 minutes
Extreme weather events have taken news broadcasters by storm! Whether it’s the LA fire, Hurricanes Milton and Helene, or the flooding of Valencia, the trend suggests that these natural disasters will only increase in the coming years. Yet, with all eyes on headlines full of Trump, the extreme right in Europe, or armed conflicts, it seems as if recently the debate about climate change has been relegated to the background. While News agencies should cover a wide array of topics, it is alarming to see that climate change issues only make the news if politicians deny global warming and withdraw from international climate treaties. So why is no one speaking about Climate Change anymore and why does it matter?
The Climate Crisis in 2024
Before diving into the media coverage of climate change, let’s briefly look at the current situation. 2024 has been a record-breaking year, and not in a good way. It is reported to be the warmest year up to date, concluding 10 years of ‘the hottest year on record’. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), exceptionally high land and sea temperatures have been recorded, breaking all previous heat records. Regional heat records were also broken in 65% of the earth's surface, such as in India where a new heat record of 52.9 °C has been registered.On top of that, 2024 has for the first time ever breached the 1.5°C threshold. Temperatures at 1.55°C higher compared to the pre-industrial age seriously challenging the objectives of the Paris Agreements. Needless to say, the situation is dire.
Media Representation of Climate Change
Considering these developments, one would think that Climate Change is a much-discussed topic at the moment. However, the opposite is the case. The 2024 yearly report by the Media and Climate Change Observatory (MeCCO) has revealed that the media representation of climate change has dropped by 16 % compared to 2023. Since 2021, the coverage of climate change has been continually decreasing, as seen in the graph.
https://mecco.colorado.edu/summaries/images/96/figure1.jpg
The report likewise suggests regional differences in 2024: the highest media coverage of climate change issues has been in Latin America, while the lowest has been in Oceania and Europe is just below the global median. Interestingly, there have been many climate-related disasters featured in headlines, but they fail to spark a larger debate. People dismiss these issues as isolated incidents, while completely disregarding overall patterns.
Why is climate change covered less?
Why is climate change covered less and less by the media even though the situation is becoming more urgent? One answer can be found within our geopolitical context. Pressing global developments in politics and international relations distract and tempt media broadcasters to turn their attention toward more imminent issues. As the global report by the MeCCO explains, “global warming fought for media attention amid largely tumultuous, competing and intersecting stories around the globe”. In more simple terms, global warming is struggling to compete with the other big headlines in the world.
Moreover, the credibility of Climate Change has been undermined. While skeptics have been vocal about their controversial opinions for many years, we can see an increasing trend of political leaders and institutions openly opposing climate measures made by previous governments or abandoning them. The most prominent example is President Donald Trump. He is determined to “drill, baby, drill”, for the benefit of countries in the Middle East. But also, the European Union, which has just recently set an example with the European Green Deal, has been under increasing pressure to make its climate strategy more ‘realistic’. Pairing these factors with an ever-faster media cycle, and the economic stagnation, climate change has lost the focus of people who are now concerned with more existential matters.
Donald Trump signed the executive order to leave the Paris Climate Accords https://www.forbes.com/sites//2025/01/22/why-trumps-exit-from-paris-agreement-may-not-be-official-until-2026/
In addition, media coverage of extreme weather events in the past has desensitized people. An example is the Amazon rainforest, which has recently been devastated by the worst wildfire in two decades. And this is not an isolated incident. Thousands of fire outbreaks in the Amazon rainforest are registered every month. In August alone, 28,697 fires were registered. But it has received very little media coverage. Why? With the high frequency of such events, the sensational element is lost, and now newspapers rather focus on topics that generate more profit.
Hence, we face the danger of completely ignoring climate change. Media coverage of climate change issues drops while the world is quite literally burning, and the public attention has turned away from the matter. Even when climate issues are raised, they are perceived as isolated events rather than ongoing matters. On top of that, political figures are reversing the environmental policies established over the last few years. Thus, we must pay attention to our climate now. Otherwise, it might be too late!
