= The Email to Journalists
Greetings.
We’re writing from Covering Climate Now, a new project of the Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation aimed at dramatically improving journalism’s coverage of climate change. We invite you to join us.
The science is beyond clear: humanity faces an emergency situation. Rising sea levels and record heat waves, wildfires, and floods are unleashing devastation worldwide, and much more is in the pipeline. We have 12 years to radically change course, UN scientists warned last October, or face catastrophe.
As journalists, we have a professional responsibility to report on the urgency of this moment. Despite good coverage by some news outlets, climate silence still reigns in much of the media. For example, only 27 percent of Americans knew in election year 2016 that virtually all scientists agreed that climate change is human-caused, happening now and very dangerous.
Some Actual Facts:
No one has surveyed
“all scientists”.
Surveys show 50%
of meteorologists
don’t believe
the doctrine
(Maibach et al 2017)
66% of engineers
and geologists
are skeptical
(Lefsrud et al 2012)
Even most certified
climate scientists
don’t agree with
the 95% certainty
that the IPCC claims
(Strengers et al 2015)