Humans love to read extreme news.
Pain, fear, and the unimaginable strongly trigger our emotions. The same goes for climate disasters, which occur at unprecedented frequency and intensity: According to the UN’s “The Human Cost Of Disaster” report, the number of climate-related disasters surged by 83% from 1980-1999 (3.656 events) compared to 2000-2019 (6.681).
Thus, climate hazards are increasingly represented by all types of media. However, the focus of content vastly differs.
Catastrophic articles about climate catastrophes
Boulevard newspapers produce the worst climate crisis articles (who else?). One example: The recent extreme floods in the region of Valencia, Spain were covered by the German boulevard newspaper BILD in a disgustingly clickbaity and voyeuristic manner.
Unnecessarily many flood pictures are shown in the articles and take even more space than the text. Orientation towards facts? Very low. Context about the climate crisis? Zero. Empathy with the victims? Zero.
Of course, all this is not their goal. BILD wants clicks. Clicks make money. But what we need is not big media profiting from the sad stories of the climate crisis. We need to inform and inspire people to action.
Luckily, there is a large climate community on the World Wide Web that can do better in communicating climate hazards (hey, it’s us!).
From catastrophe — to understanding — to action
First of all, what should our goal be when writing about climate hazards? Information and action! We should explain the link between the human-made climate crisis and increasing extreme events.
Dear Fox News, BILD, and all the others, describing climate catastrophes as isolated events just means proactively ignoring climate science.
Also, our words should not make people feel powerless or lethargic. We should empower actions or at least inspire follow-up conversations. So *rolls up sleeves* — how can we do that?
#1 Climate context matters!
Establishing the connection between climate hazards and human-made climate crisis is a must. Globally, we are at a point where we urgently need to face our accountability.
It is not enough to broadly state that the climate catastrophe you write about is linked to global warming. Provide facts on the climate hazard in focus to show the fundamental, structural phenomenon of the climate crisis.
For example, putting the recent deadly floods in Spain into context, the World Weather Attribute (WWA) estimates that similar extreme events “are about 12% more intense and about twice as likely in today’s climate, that is 1.3°C warmer than it would have been in the cooler preindustrial climate without human-caused warming.” Also, according to the UN, major floods doubled from 1980–1999 compared to 2000–2019— from 1.389 to 3.254.
Once you made sure you explained the global context…
#2 Provide precise facts on the climate hazards
Use statistics to help you grasp the scope of an extreme weather event. Also, it gives your writing more credibility. Questions to cover could be
- Which area was concerned?
- How many people have died?
- When was the last event of the same magnitude?
- What is the economic impact of the climate hazard?
Let’s again look at the recent floods in Valencia, Spain.
The areas concerned are well-shown by ESA — a vast part of the Spanish regions of Valencia, Castilla La-Mancha, and Andalusia. To date, 223 deaths have been reported due to the floods. This makes it the deadliest flood in Europe in over 50 years. The last comparable event was in 1970 in Romania, when 209 people lost their lives. The Spanish catastrophe also comes with high costs: The government has just announced an 11.4bn $ aid package for affected regions.
#3 Infuse hope and call for action
We do not want to be just sad and devastated after reading news on climate. This leaves people too tired to act — not helpful if we want to have an impact on the climate crisis.
At the same time, we do not have to wave a ‘we need massive action’ flag all the time we write. We can simply hint at actions that are not overwhelming and can be done immediately.
For example, the Spanish floods resulted in a wave of help by volunteers. And very quickly, the webpage ayudaterreta was installed to match volunteers with people in need.
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Hey there, I hope this article was of value to you! 🌱 My words are mostly dedicated to sustainability, self-development, and sport and I strive to build a community here on Medium. I am beyond happy if you support my mission with claps, comments, or a follow! Best, Jacky
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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