In 2022, national TV news coverage of extreme weather must connect these events to both climate change and our reliance on fossil fuels
Published
As we hurtle toward peak extreme weather season, the fossil fuel industry has been using the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine to call for continued and deepened reliance on the very products that are driving climate-fueled weather events. This campaign has been amplified by right-wing news outlets such as Fox News, while mainstream cable news outlets have largely failed to challenge this narrative – and in some instances even echoed it.
This year has already seen more than half of the continental United States in drought, the Hermit Peaks Fire ravage New Mexico, and tornadoes devastate large swaths of the Great Plains, Midwest, and South. Meanwhile, many countries – including the United States – are seriously considering locking in decades of continued fossil fuel extraction and burning, despite acknowledging the need to decarbonize their economies.
In this moment, viewers deserve extreme weather coverage that not only clears the bar, but also meets the moment and raises the bar by consistently connecting the science of climate change to increasingly frequent and devastating extreme weather events, detailing the necessity of transitioning away from fossil fuels to mitigate climate change’s worst consequences, and contextualizing how events such as the war in Ukraine could impact our ability to take necessary climate action.