Wednesday, December 15, 2021

WHALE? THAT CLOUD LOOKS LIKE A HOCKEY STICK TO ME

13 December 2021

The double-edged sword of catastrophe 

climate reporting

The media has recently adopted more urgent language to discuss climate change. Yet, stronger words have had little impact on public behaviour.

POLLY BINDMAN


British newspapers are using more urgent language to describe climate change, data shows. Analysis of articles from over the past 15 years has found that the use of alarming phrases to describe climate change, such as “crisis” “breakdown” or “catastrophe”, has dramatically increased since the end of 2019. Yet this more radical language doesn’t necessarily translate into radical climate action.

Extreme concerns: A great majority of the 656 respondents to a Nature poll say they are extremely worried about climate change.

Growing fears: 80% of poll respondents say their level of worry has increased since the last major international climate summit.

Hanging on to hope: Around half of respondents are hopeful that COP26 will boost global efforts to tackle climate change.


While “climate change” is still the media’s favourite phrase, mentioned 1,483 times this October, its popularity peaked in 2020 and 2009. The term “global warming” is falling out of fashion altogether. This is partly thanks to the Guardian changing its style guide in 2019, replacing “climate change” with “crisis” or “emergency”. The newspaper has historically led the discourse on climate change, but the issue peaked across all media in October 2021 in run up to Cop26. 

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