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Last week, IPCC scientists issued a grim update on the realities of climate change, which UN Secretary General António Guterres called a “code red for humanity.” That report will form the basis of debates and decisions at COP26, the global summit taking place in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12.
Journalists must help audiences understand that COP26 is not just another international meeting—it’s one of the most important diplomatic gatherings in history. Either world leaders will reach an agreement to limit future global warming to a survivable amount, or they won’t. The science says it’s now or never. Though the summit is still ten weeks away, it’s a story journalists should start telling now. So, what do our readers, viewers, and listeners need to know?
At Covering Climate Now, we’re proposing a single organizing question for journalists’ coverage beginning now and extending through the COP26 summit: What’s at stake?
The question is purposefully expansive. If we answer it well in the coming months, our audiences will be equipped to understand the magnitude of COP26.
“What’s at stake?” will drive much of CCNow’s work in the coming weeks, during which we’ll provide resources to help journalists tell the COP26 story with rigor: A primer with recommended coverage themes and background on the science, politics, economics, and issues of climate justice at play during the summit. “Talking Shop” webinars, beginning in September, during which experts will help bring journalists up to speed. Frequent commentary and recommendations for coverage. And our next joint coverage week, from October 31 to November 6, during the first, quieter week of COP26. (Our goal is to help orient audiences toward the summit before the flood of headlines begins during the second week.)
Stay tuned!
NEWS FROM US
ICYMI, COLUMN: Last week, we analyzed coverage of the recent IPCC report and offered a preliminary roadmap for climate coverage leading up to COP 26. Read the column…
The climate connection, made easy. Evidence of climate change is all around us, but too often climate is absent from extreme weather reporting. See our new handy guide to help set your coverage straight. Print it out for referencing, email it to colleagues, share it with everyone in your newsroom. (We promise, making the connection is WAY easier than you think!) Check it out…
ESSENTIAL CLIMATE COVERAGE
Carbon capture copout. As the US government lurches towards climate action, a dubious solution—less proven and deployable at scale for decades—is scoring billions in federal spending. The bipartisan infrastructure deal alone, hailed as progress by government leaders, spends $12 billion on carbon capture, much of that going directly to fossil fuel companies, while doing little to break the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. From Inside Climate News…
Different worlds. We know that climate change bodes the worst for the disadvantaged, while money and power protect others, but in some places that contrast is especially stark. ProPublica visits Thermal, California, which it calls “a cartoonishly horrible expression” of the climate gap, where the rich luxuriate while the poor broil in a community that’s falling apart. From ProPublica…
Fire everywhere. Wildfires are a natural phenomenon in many environments, but amid climate change they’re becoming more frequent and more widespread, each year burning an area larger than India and roughly half the size of the continental US. An interactive graphic maps the fires this summer, from Siberia to Syria, Algeria, California, and France. From Al Jazeera…
Net positive. The Harvard Business Review this week unveiled its “Net Positive Manifesto,” a challenge to businesses to take ownership of their social impacts, including their impacts on the climate. “If your firm has aggressive carbon-reduction goals but you lobby against policies to reduce emissions, what’s your real impact on climate?” the Review writes. “It’s not net positive, no matter how well you manage your own footprint.” From the Harvard Business Review…
“Energy sovereignty.” With the US government still moving slowly to reduce fossil fuel use, Indigenous groups are taking matters into their own hands. In Hawai‘i, New Mexico, and California, tribes have constructed their own renewable energy systems, both to reduce energy inequality and better honor surrounding landscapes. From Yes! Magazine…
No bard for Svalbard. Longyearbyen, on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, is the fastest- warming town in the world, with roughly 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since 1971. For more than a decade, American journalist Mark Sabbatini has covered Svalbard in his English-language newspaper IcePeople, but recently he was expelled, leaving a gap at one front line of a warming planet. From Columbia Journalism Review…
REPUBLICATION RECOMMENDATIONS
The following stories deserve special consideration for republication by CCNow partners:
- Amazon forest loss hits second highest level since 2008 – Mongabay
- Meet the Cheakamus, the only community forest to develop carbon offsets in British Columbia – The Narwhal
- ‘Abolish these companies, get rid of them’: what would it take to break up big oil? – From the Guardian’s & CCNow’s ‘Climate Crimes’ series
For partner outlets: to submit stories for sharing, please use this form. Instructions for republishing and the full list of stories available for republication can be found in our Sharing Library.
ODDS & ENDS
End-of-summer reading. Yale Climate Communications is out with a list of 12 books that we can’t promise will relax you but will inform and entertain you, including “The Lure of the Beach,” by Robert C. Ritchie, “How to Change Everything,” by Naomi Klein, and “The Day the World Stops Shopping,” by J.B. Mackinnon. Check out the list…
Accuracy improving, still ground to cover. A new study from Colorado University Boulder finds that scientific accuracy in climate reporting has improved significantly over the past decade and that climate change is now less often treated as a two-sided debate. That’s good news. Conservative media outlets still have a long way to go. More on the study…
Registration open for COP26. Journalists and other attendees can apply now to attend the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow, set for October 31 to November 12. Registration information is here…
Thanks for reading, and see you next time!
If you have any feedback on this newsletter, or know of information that should be included here, shoot us a note at editors@coveringclimatenow.org.