It’s a welcome sign of how much more seriously the media is now taking climate change: In the days after Vice President Kamala Harris emerged as the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, many leading US news outlets ran stories about her climate record and how it might affect voters’ choices in November. Stories appeared on ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, TIME, and others — outlets that reach scores of millions of people daily and shape how policymakers in politics, business, and beyond view the world.
This is a much-needed departure from the past. Climate was absent from mainstream news coverage of the 2016 and preceding elections. 2020 was only slightly better. But in 2024, editors and reporters on the politics desks of some of the biggest voices in news have evidently decided that climate change matters.
The New York Times’s decision to assign veteran climate correspondent Lisa Friedman to cover the 2024 campaign paid off with an authoritative summary of Harris’s record dating back to her days as attorney general of California. At TIME, Justin Worland noted that “before this week, climate change has played a back-seat role in the conversation around this year’s election. But energy and climate’s role in the race may have changed….” CNN’s Ella Nilsen provided essential context: “Harris’s candidacy comes at a make-or-break moment for the planet…. scientists and energy groups say the only way to minimize the damage is to rapidly deploy clean energy on a massive scale by the end of this decade.”
The question now: Will news outlets stay with the climate story for the rest of the campaign? The coverage to date provides a good foundation for journalists reporting on the US elections — at local and national outlets, in the US and abroad — to make climate a central part of their coverage in the less than 100 days until Election Day.
While climate advocates have thronged to Harris’s candidacy, the vice president’s record deserves scrutiny. For example, how does she square her support for the rapid phase-out of fossil fuels with the Biden administration having approved more oil and gas production licenses than the Trump administration did? How does she defend her reported retreat from a fracking ban when newly published science shows that slashing methane emissions is imperative to avert a catastrophic escalation of global warming?
As journalists ask Harris such questions, they should be no less aggressive in pressing former president Donald Trump — and indeed all candidates — on what they will do about the climate crisis increasingly ravaging communities all over the world. Because heat-trapping emissions must fall dramatically over the next four years to avoid irreparable harm, 2024 was always going to be a de facto climate election. Journalists need to keep treating it that way.
From Us
VP Harris’s record. Join CCNow for a one-hour Talking Shop webinar focused on Vice President Kamala Harris’s climate record, how climate voters are responding, and what a Harris administration could mean for US climate policy. Panelists will be Zoya Teirstein of Grist, Scott Waldman of Politico’s E&E News, and Justin Worland of TIME; CCNow’s Mark Hertsgaard will moderate. Wednesday, August 7, 12pm US Eastern Time. RSVP.
Connecting with Texas audiences. In a webinar co-sponsored by CCNow and The Texas Tribune, panelists will discuss how Texas journalists can reach local audiences by making the climate connection. Panelists are: Brandi Addison, Connect Reporter for the USA Today Network (Texas); Professor Jay L. Banner of the Department Earth and Planetary Science, University of Texas; and Priya Zachariah, Chief Resilience Officer, Harris County Flood Control District. Emily Foxhall, The Texas Tribune’s climate reporter, will moderate. Thursday, August 8, 1pm US Eastern Time. RSVP.
Climate on the Ballot Summit. From September 17-19, join CCNow and top political and climate journalists for a virtual summit on integrating climate into your elections coverage. RSVP.
Covering activism. Watch a recording of “How to Covering Climate Activism,” CCNow’s Talking Shop webinar from this week with Keerti Gopal, Activism Reporter for Inside Climate News, and journalist and activist Bill McKibben. Watch now.
Noteworthy Stories
Sizzling Olympics. Climate change has driven up temperatures an average of 3.1 degrees Celsius in Paris during the same period since the city last hosted the Summer Olympics Games in 1924. The BBC explores what that difference means for the Games and what athletes need to do to stay safe. “Heat could be a killer if you aren’t able to get your nutrition and hydration right,” said Pragnya Mohan, India’s first Olympic triathlete. From Isabelle Gerretsen and Miriam Quick of the BBC…
- Reporting on heat during these Olympics? Climate Central has shared graphics to round out your coverage.
- The heat baking the Mediterranean and stifling the Olympics would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, according to a new World Weather Attribution study.
- Need inspiration to connect local sports and climate? Check out this week’s edition of Locally Sourced, and sign up to receive the newsletter biweekly.
Oil companies’ CCS “fantasy.” ExxonMobil has long promoted carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a key climate solution, even though the company’s internal documents show they knew otherwise. If CCS is to reduce global heating, captured carbon must be sequestered; instead, it’s often sold off and used to extract more fossil fuels. The Inflation Reduction Act boosted the tax credit for every metric ton of carbon sequestered using CCS, but whether emissions are stored is “entirely self-reported.” From Amy Westervelt for Drilled and Vox…
Historic heat. Last week saw four of the hottest days ever recorded on Earth; about 3.6 billion people experienced the record temperatures. “The extreme events that we are now experiencing are indications of the weakening resilience of these [natural] systems,” said Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “We cannot risk pushing this any further.” From Sarah Kaplan for The Washington Post…
Second Trump term. Former president Donald Trump has pledged to dismantle President Joe Biden’s climate legacy if elected to a second term. But his ability to do so won’t be “unfettered.” Some changes would be easier, like pausing money and rewriting tax rules, while others would be harder, requiring an act of Congress or the courts. Kelsey Tamborrino, Timothy Cama, and Jessie Blaeser for Politico…
“Living labs.” Across the US, university students and professors are testing and implementing climate solutions and adaptation measures on campus, from reducing food waste to considering travel emissions to preparing for heat-related risks to student athletes. From Caroline Preston for The Hechinger Report and Grist…
Via Social
The greenhouse gas methane is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet. At a time when methane emissions are rising faster than they have in decades, US senator Joe Manchin, an Independent from West Virginia who caucuses with the Democrats, is proposing that the US increase fossil gas exports.
As the Senate considers Manchin bill to massively increase LNG exports, this news flash:https://t.co/Da4D1CjT6k.
— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) July 31, 2024
Resources & Events
Half of the US. On Friday, August 2, 148 million Americans — nearly half the population — are predicted to experience extreme heat made three or more times as likely by climate change, according to Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index.
Solutions 101. Join Solutions Journalism Network’s upcoming webinar, “Solutions Journalism 101,” to learn the ins and outs of solutions reporting. August 6.
Net-zero data. World Resources Institute is hosting “Discovering Data on Net-Zero Commitments,” in which presenters will dig into the latest data on net-zero commitments and how they’re being tracked. August 7.
Urban heat. World Resources Institute is hosting the webinar “Extreme Urban Heat: Opportunities to Mitigate Risks in Cities” on August 13.
- Climate Central’s guide “Urban Heat Hot Spots in 65 Cities” includes basic urban heat facts, interactive maps, and downloadable graphics to.
- To help your audience understand how trees mitigate urban heat, check out “Covering Urban Forest,” a recent edition of Locally Sourced.
Mediterranean heat wave. July’s extreme heat in the Mediterranean — affecting much of Europe and North Africa — would have been “impossible” without human-induced climate change, according to a new World Weather Attribution study. “Climate change crashed the Olympics,” said Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment.
“Alarmed.” People “alarmed” about climate represent the largest portion of respondents in about three-quarters of countries and territories surveyed by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. The US is less alarmed than most other top carbon-emitting countries. And among the top 15 emitting countries, the largest portion of alarmed respondents are in Mexico, Brazil, and India.
Carbon offsets. The Journalist’s Resource has published the guide “Carbon offsets: 4 things journalists need to understand” to help get you started.
Jobs, Etc.
Jobs. Deutsche Welle is recruiting multimedia journalists (Abuja, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; and Nairobi, Kenya). Atmos is hiring a site director (remote). Business Insider is looking for an infrastructure/transportation freelancer from Baltimore, Md. ($700/story).
Fellowships. The COP29 Cross-Border Energy Transition Reporting Fellowship will offer five journalists the opportunity to report on green workers. Deadline to apply is August 12. ProPublica is accepting applications for its Emerging Reporters Program. Apply by September 5, at 5pm US Eastern Time.
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