United States news coverage of climate change reached an all-time high in October and November, according to recent data from the (MeCCO), an international, multi-university collaboration based at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Monitoring stories around the globe from 127 newspapers, radio and television stations in 59 countries and 13 languages, MeCCO found that during these two months鈥攚hich coincided with the 2021 United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland鈥攇lobal media coverage was also the highest it鈥檚 been since November and December 2009, when the same annual conference took place in Copenhagen, Denmark.听
鈥淐limate change is no longer just a science story. It鈥檚 now a political, economic, societal and cultural story,鈥� said Max Boykoff, MeCCO lead project investigator and chair of the Department of Environmental Studies.听
Both and showed significant increases in global climate change coverage from the previous year, with newspaper coverage in October 2021 more than doubling (a 114% increase) from October 2020. This coverage in October 2021 jumped up quickly from the previous month, with newspaper coverage increasing 22% and radio up 29% from September. While newspaper coverage then plateaued in November 2021, it had increased 81% from a year prior, and global radio coverage of climate change increased a whopping 45% from October to November 2021.听
In addition to the U.N. conference, emerging stories on social movements played a role in increased coverage, as well as new scientific reports published in October 2021: the annual about climate change impacts on human health (to which MeCCO team members Olivia Pearman and Lucy McAllister contributed); and a paper in which documented how land dispossession from native peoples in the U.S. has increased their vulnerability to climate change.听
Front page coverage of COP26 around the world at various points of the two-week negotiations. (Credit:听Media and Climate Change Observatory)听
Changing language for a changing climate听
The language of climate change is also changing, with more intense words and phrases being used in the news to describe the phenomenon, such as 鈥渃limate catastrophe鈥� and 鈥渃limate emergency,鈥� according to data collected by MeCCO and language learning platform Babbel from 2006 to 2021.听
MeCCO鈥檚 work depends on identifying new terms being used in the news and then incorporating them into their tracking algorithms. In their work with Babbel, they chose eight search terms to track where and when they have emerged in recent years.听
Between 2020 and 2021 alone, the use of 鈥渃limate catastrophe鈥� in U.S. news outlets increased by half; in the UK, use of the term tripled.听
鈥淥ur language helps describe the realities of our world,鈥� said in the (CIRES).
Meanwhile, the terms 鈥済lobal warming鈥� and 鈥済reenhouse effect鈥� have been invoked less frequently. At least one outlet, in 2019, preferring the terms 鈥済lobal heating鈥� and 鈥渃limate emergency, crisis or breakdown鈥� over 鈥済lobal warming鈥� and 鈥渃limate change,鈥� respectively.听
The term 鈥渃limate change鈥� however, is not disappearing鈥攊t鈥檚 just that other terms are increasing, said Boykoff.
He notes that it鈥檚 difficult to draw a straight line between more media coverage and increased action on climate change. Yet the news is a major way we understand the world going on around us, and political actors also use media attention to gauge public pressures and interests, he said.听
鈥淚ncreased media attention is part of a story of increased engagement and action,鈥� said Boykoff. 听
MeCCO will release a year-long look at climate change in the news in 2021 in January 2022, its fifth annual summary/explainer of this type. The data MeCCO uses to compile their reports are set up as open-source databases through CU Boulder Libraries, which are available to anyone free of charge: academics, journalists and the public alike.
MeCCO members also authored a paper in The Lancet in January of 2021, 鈥渟,鈥� which uses the same methods to analyze media coverage of COVID-19. With , MeCCO could use their existing network to glean valuable insights on media coverage of the pandemic like they have been tracking and analyzing climate change news.听
