By now, you’ve probably watched the video of meteorologist John Morales fighting back tears while describing how climate change caused Hurricane Milton to intensify exceptionally quickly into an ”incredible, incredible, incredible” Category 5 storm. “Just horrific,” Morales told viewers at WTVJ, the NBC-owned station in Miami.
That video quickly went viral, garnering millions of views on social media and news coverage by CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the BBC, Sky News, France 24, the Times of India, and more before Milton hit land.
What many people might not know about Morales — a longtime friend and colleague of Covering Climate Now — is that he’s been talking about climate change on the air for more than 20 years, long before most of his journalistic colleagues joined in. He did so even when Florida governors were forbidding state officials from using the words “climate change.”
Morales got emotional on the air, he explained to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (where he writes a column) partly because he knew full well from his decades of covering hurricanes that Milton would “hurt so many people.”
But he also choked up out of “frustration” — a frustration that we, his fellow journalists, need to reckon with.
“I have been talking about this for 20 plus years, trying to alert people of what was coming, trying to advocate for climate action,” he told the Bulletin. But “very little has been done to mitigate what’s causing global warming, and therefore, here we are.”
Where we are is a media world where reticence about speaking directly about the climate crisis still exists, even in the face of horrific storms like Milton, and Helene before it. Many newsrooms still wrestle with whether the moment of disaster is the appropriate time to bring in the broader climate story, or whether talking about climate change at all edges them closer to activism.
In other realms, meanwhile, the media debate has largely ended. Most newsrooms, for instance, now accept that it’s appropriate to discuss the debate over gun control laws even as they cover school shootings. The two issues are linked.
Could Hurricanes Helene and Milton finally bring a turning point in the world’s response to climate change? At the moment, the focus is, appropriately, on assessing the damage (thankfully, most people heeded warnings to evacuate) and helping victims of Milton — by providing food, water, shelter, and medicine; restoring power and other basic services.
But the kind of coverage journalists deliver in the days and months ahead will help answer that turning point question.
Will it become routine for journalists to make the climate connection in our reporting about extreme weather? Will we make sure audiences also hear the good news–that scientists have repeatedly stated that humanity has all the tools required to limit global warming to the 1.5 degrees C target and keep impacts from becoming utterly unmanageable?
And a question with particular relevance in the US with Election Day less than a month away: Will we help voters understand that this is a climate election, and will we press candidates about what they will do about the accelerating crisis?
As journalists, we don’t tell people who to vote for. But, taking a lesson from Morales, let’s jettison the idea that it’s somehow biased to favor taking action to preserve a livable planet. As he wrote when explaining why he got so shaken on the air, “Frankly, YOU should be shaken too, and demand #ClimateActionNow.”
From Us
Trump’s climate record. Join CCNow for a one-hour Talking Shop, “Digging Into Former President Donald Trump’s Climate Record,” on October 16, at 12pm US Eastern Time. We’ll be joined by Maxine Joselow, climate reporter for The Washington Post, and Oliver Millman, environment correspondent for the Guardian. Mark Hertsgaard, CCNow’s executive director and co-founder, will moderate.
- In August, panelists talked through Vice President Kamala Harris’s climate record and what a Harris administration could mean for climate action on the webinar “Digging Into Vice President Kamala Harris’s Climate Record.”
Climate connection. Looking for help making the climate connection to extreme weather events? Check out CCNow’s useful reporting guides “Making the Climate Connection” and “Extreme Weather,” which explains, for example, how climate change is fueling hurricanes.
Noteworthy Stories
Abortion access. Hurricane Helene made access to reproductive healthcare in the states hit, including North Carolina and Georgia, even more difficult. Clinics were closed, access roads were impassable, and without water, it was impossible to deliver services. In the aftermath, people will have to travel farther, if they’re able to travel at all, to receive reproductive healthcare, and some people will miss the window in which to have a legal abortion. By Jessica Kutz for The 19th…
Solar-powered. Solar companies in Central and West Africa are among the fastest growing on the continent due to solar’s relatively low cost and reliability, often reaching areas where many lack electricity. By Kemo Cham and Jessica Donati for the Associated Press…
Driest year. “Water is the canary in the coalmine of climate change,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo in a new report this week. The U.N. weather agency reported that 2023’s record-high heat drove severe drought in the southern U.S. and Central and South America, warning that as many as 5 billion globally could lack adequate water access by 2050. By Jamey Keaten for the Associated Press…
LNG export emissions. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) produces 33% more greenhouse gases than coal, according to a new study published in the Energy Science & Engineering Journal. Citing LNG’s carbon-intensive drilling, moving, supercooling, and shipping process, scientists say that “ending the use of LNG should be a global priority.” By Oliver Milman for the Guardian…
Jane Fonda speaks. The actor and activist talks about her climate activism, and how she’s fighting to build political power that’s committed to taking climate action. “I don’t get depressed anymore, I get angry, but I’m not depressed,” Jane Fonda said in a recent CCNow organized newsmaker interview with partners CBS News, Rolling Stone magazine, and the Guardian. For CBS News…
Via Social
CBS Philadelphia tackles an example of climate mis- and disinformation their team is seeing online — and corrects the record. Station meteorologist Andrew Kozak also points to Climate Central as an excellent source for fact-based climate information.
View this post on Instagram
Resources & Events
Climate Central has published an analysis showing that climate change made the record-breaking temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico up to 400-800 times more likely, supercharging the “extreme rapid intensification” of Hurricane Milton.
Clean Energy Wire has published a helpful article based on conversations at its recent 10-year anniversary celebration, “Where to begin if you plan to cover energy and climate policymaking in Brussels.” The topline? “EU policymaking might appear overwhelming to beginners – but on closer inspection, it often turns out to be rather simple.”
The Pulitzer Center is hosting an in-person event, “Setting the Record Straight on Offshore Wind,” on October 16, in Newport, R.I.
The World Resources Institute is hosting a webinar, “Bigger and Better in Baku: Scaling Up Climate Finance for Developing Nations,” on October 23.
The World Resources Institute is hosting a Spanish-language webinar, “Experiencias Inspiradoras para una Transición Justa en el Perú / Inspiring Experiences for a Just Transition in Peru,” on November 5.
Jobs, Etc.
Jobs. Spectrum News is looking for a National Meteorologist (Louisville, Ky.) and a Chief Meteorologist (Milwaukee, Wisc.). WTKR/WGNT, the E.W. Scripps station in Norfolk, Va., is hiring a Weekend Morning Meteorologist/MMJ. WMAR is seeking a Meteorologist (Baltimore, Md.).
Funding. The Pulitzer Center’s Ocean and Fisheries Reporting Grant is accepting applications on a rolling basis.
Fellowship. The Solutions Journalism Network and the European Journalism Centre are holding a 10-month fellowship with 12 fellows working to revolutionize climate journalism in Europe. Apply by October 13.