Who really cares about climate change, anyway?
In this fraught political moment — as governments around the world gut their climate policies, online platforms loosen the spigots of disinformation, and human suffering from global heating deepens — it’s easy for journalists, and their audiences, to question how much people care about the burning of the planet.
It turns out, people do care. In a finding that received scant media attention at the time, a peer-reviewed study published last year by the scientific journal Nature Climate Change found that 89% of the world’s population want their governments to “do more” to fix climate change. However, those 89% don’t know that they are the overwhelming majority — that most other people on Earth also want governments to take stronger climate action. Separately, a survey the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication released today found that “most Americans, including many Republicans, do not support President Donald Trump’s proposed climate and energy policies.” More than seven out of 10 registered voters support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant (73%), wish to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement (73%), and want more solar and wind energy (71%).
To date, most news coverage has failed to notice this silent climate majority. The 89 Percent Project, a collaborative, global initiative Covering Climate Now is launching today, aims to change that.
We believe the time has come to flip the script on how the press covers climate change — from a narrative of fear, defensiveness, and retreat to one of hope, solutions, and empowerment. We also want to shine a light on the fact that most governments around the world aren’t delivering the climate leadership their constituents want, even though scientists have said repeatedly that humanity has all the tools necessary to limit global temperature rise. Those governments’ shortcomings reflect a deficit of democracy, but they are also an opportunity for civic-minded journalism and public engagement.
CCNow invites journalists and news organizations everywhere to participate in The 89 Percent Project — by publishing stories, joining and organizing events, and amplifying the project on social media. We envision this as a year-long effort in which news coverage explores why the 89% isn’t treated as a majority; how that number breaks down by geography and demographics; what the 89% want their governments to do about climate change; what’s stopping so many governments from implementing solutions; and what kinds of solutions ordinary people themselves can pursue.
When CCNow began, five years ago, we organized a joint coverage week during which our then-323 newsroom partners produced thousands of news stories that helped break the climate silence of the world’s media. Now, The 89 Percent Project invites our colleagues throughout the global news business to change the climate conversation with another joint coverage week—this one beginning April 20 to coincide with the week of Earth Day.
The 89 Percent Project will also include a second joint coverage week in October in the lead-up to COP30, the crucial climate summit taking place in Brazil in November. Between April and November, the project will host webinars for journalists; arrange public gatherings (online and in-person) where members of civil society and journalists discuss additional steps; provide a digital home for the news coverage produced; and organize social media campaigns to draw attention to that coverage and the project as a whole.
If you’re a journalist or newsroom leader who wants to learn more about The 89 Percent Project, please get in touch with us via editors[at]coveringclimatenow[dot]org. We especially welcome ideas, questions, and suggestions about how to make this project better. In the coming weeks, CCNow will host gatherings online to continue the conversation.
We at CCNow have always believed that great climate coverage is itself a climate solution. We look forward to working with our fellow journalists to demonstrate that again with The 89 Percent Project.
From Us
CCNow Basics: Reporting Solutions. On Thursday, February 6, as part of our CCNow Basics training webinar series, we’re hosting a session on how to identify, question, investigate, and report on climate solutions. We’re offering the same session at two different times, to better fit your schedule. RSVP for Session 1, at 11am UTC (6am US Eastern Time) and/or Session 2, at 6pm UTC (1pm US Eastern Time).
Power & Progress newsletter. The latest edition of our new biweekly newsletter, about the politics of the renewable energy transition, summarizes Donald Trump’s climate-related moves in his first week back in the White House. For fact-checks, expert perspectives, story ideas, and more, check out our Power & Progress archive and sign up to get it every other Tuesday.
Thank you to the MacArthur Foundation. CCNow is proud to be among 15 recipients in a $6 million round of grant funding meant to bolster climate journalism in the US. Other recipients include longtime CCNow partners Inside Climate News, Grist, and Drilled, among others.
Press Briefing: The future of insurance. Last week, CCNow hosted a one-hour briefing exploring how news outlets can tackle insurance, which promises to be a central, and contentious, part of the climate story going forward. Watch a recording.
Noteworthy Stories
Plasticity, melting. The speed and the severity of the Los Angeles wildfires would not have been possible without plastic, a fossil-fuel byproduct, which, by forming the basis of so many modern conveniences, has turned homes into “chemical-laced infernos that burn hotter, faster, and more toxic than their predecessors.” By Zoë Schlanger for The Atlantic…
Best intentions. A surge of charitable clothing donations in response to the LA fires has left groups responsible for sorting those donations with a leftover, 50,000-pound mountain of unwanted and unusable items — an ironic monument to the overconsumption that’s contributing to climate change in the first place. By Victoria Namkung for the Guardian…
High on a mountain top. Mountaintop removal, an explosive method for accessing coal, left the rocky hills of eastern Kentucky spotted with unnatural patches of flat land at high altitudes — a vivid symbol of the fossil fuel extraction which long defined the region. Now, Kentuckians are building homes on that land, in an effort to escape flooding in lower-lying areas, which is intensifying due to climate change. By Austyn Gaffney, with photos by Jon Cherry, for The New York Times…
Now hiring, or not. Trump’s assault on offshore wind — so far, a promise kept and delivered — threatens not just America’s decarbonization prospects but jobs, potentially many thousands of which stand to be cut. A twist: More than 64% of public and private investments in offshore wind have benefitted, and now may be stripped from, Republican-led districts. By Clare Fieseler for Canary Media…
Today’s catch. Between 2020 and 2024, fish yields have fallen nearly 20% in the world’s longest freshwater lake, Lake Tanganyika, which spans Tanzania’s borders with Burundi, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Climate change is a clear culprit, and fishers in the region, who depend on the lake for both sustenance and livelihoods, have struggled to keep up. By Tristan Bove and Louise Kim for Al Jazeera…
Rolling in the deep. With China’s new DeepSeek the talk of the financial world, it’s worth asking: What are the climate implications of the boom in artificial intelligence? The Associated Press answers in no uncertain terms: “AI uses vast amounts of energy, much of which comes from burning fossil fuels, which causes climate change.” By Jennifer McDermott and Matt O’Brien for the AP…
Resources, Events, Etc.
Attribution and the LA fires. The group World Weather Attribution is out with a rapid scientific study showing that climate change made the LA fires 35% more likely “by reducing rainfall, drying out vegetation, and increasing the overlap between flammable drought conditions and strong Santa Ana winds.” Should climate change continue apace, with temperatures projected to increase 2.6 degrees Celsius beyond pre-industrial levels by 2100, such conditions will become a further 35% more likely. View WWA’s study.
How to cover the “just transition.” Lameez Omarjee, a fellow at the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute, has published a study on the challenges and opportunities of covering the need for a just transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, with input from policy experts and journalists alike in Omarjee’s native South Africa. Check out “How not to mess up the most important climate story of the decade.”
Democracies and climate change. The UCLA School of Law is hosting a webinar, “Can Democracies Deal with the Climate Crisis?” on Monday, February 3, at 12:15pm Pacific Standard Time (8:15pm UTC).
Jobs, Opportunities, Etc.
National outlets. CNN is hiring a senior writer and reporter for climate & weather, a climate data visuals editor, a remote extreme weather editor, and another extreme weather editor specifically based in Atlanta, Ga. (other positions are hybrid, based in any of five American cities). National Geographic is hiring a senior digital editor (Washington, D.C.). Civil Eats is hiring a staff reporter (remote). The Washington Post is hiring a Climate Lab reporter/columnist and a democracy editor (Washington, D.C.). Politico’s E&E News is hiring a Congress reporter (Arlington, Va.).
Local outlets. The Miami Herald is hiring a real estate reporter (Miami, Fla.). SFGate is hiring three contributing parks editors, for the Southwest, Pacific Northwest, and Big Sky Country regions (each based in the respective coverage area), as well as a California politics reporter (San Francisco, Calif.). The Mountain State Spotlight in West Virginia is hiring an economic justice reporter and a community watchdog reporter (Charleston, W.V.).
Report for America is accepting applications for its 2025–2026 cohort. Corps members will be placed in one of 100-plus newsrooms, and the environment is among the top beats for which the program is hiring. Applications are due February 3. Learn more and apply.
The Metcalf Institute is accepting applications for its Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists in Rhode Island, from June 8–13. Apply by February 14. Learn more and apply.
The Uproot Project is accepting applications for its 2025 fellowship program, which will provide funding to seven journalists, to support reporting on environmental justice; food, water, and culture; climate solutions; and science. Applications are due March 1. Learn more and apply.
Submissions are open for the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists Excellence in Journalism Awards, which honor coverage of issues related to the LGBTQ+ community. In the association’s words, the awards “are open to anyone, including non-members and journalists who do not identify as LGBTQ+.” Early-bird submission pricing ends on February 17, and the final deadline for entries is April 1. Learn more and apply.
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