The three major drivers of climate coverage on corporate broadcast TV news in 2021 were global extreme weather events, which primarily occurred during the summer months; various climate initiatives put forth by President Biden; and the COP26 meeting in November.
Extreme Weather
Summer 2021 was full of global extreme weather events that were costly, deadly, and intensified by climate change. The United States had the hottest June on record and the most extreme heat wave in history, with record-breaking and deadly temperatures hitting the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, Canada, in June, followed by the hottest month ever recorded on Earth in July. In Western Europe, severe rainfall led to catastrophic flooding that caused hundreds of deaths in Germany and Belgium, becoming the costliest weather event in European history. In China, extreme weather produced a year’s worth of rain over the course of a few days in the city of Zhengzhou, affecting more than 3 million people. In late August and early September, warmer than usual ocean water helped Hurricane Ida rapidly intensify from a Category 1 to a Category 4 storm as it became one of the most intense tropical storms in the U.S. on record, leaving devastation along the Gulf Coast and triggering record rainfall and flooding across the Northeast.
The longstanding drought in the western U.S. — the worst in 1,200 years — was further intensified by the summer’s extreme heat conditions, and both were key factors in producing extremely intense wildfires, which burned 7.7 million acres in all of 2021. In August, California’s Dixie Fire became the largest single fire in state history. Wildfires also hit much of the Mediterranean region that month, no doubt exacerbated by the hottest summer in European history.
Notably, after years of largely failing to link extreme weather and climate change, corporate broadcast TV news has finally started to more consistently acknowledge these connections, increasingly discussing climate change when reporting on these weather events. In fact, coverage of extreme weather events represented 35% of combined broadcast nightly and morning news climate segments in 2021.
Nightly news shows aired 90 segments that featured discussion of extreme weather events, making up nearly half of the 181 nightly news climate segments last year. Sixty of these 90 segments came during reporting on summer extreme weather. In total, NBC Nightly News ran 40 extreme weather segments, constituting 68% of its 59 overall climate segments. ABC’s World News Tonight ran 26 extreme weather segments, which constituted 46% of its 57 overall climate segments. CBS Evening News ran 24 extreme weather segments, which constituted 37% of its 65 overall climate segments.
Climate mentions within reporting on summer extreme weather events were generally centered on stories from the U.S. Wildfires in California and other western states were the most-mentioned extreme weather event in climate segments on broadcast nightly news in 2021, occurring 23 times. This was followed by U.S. heat waves, which were mentioned 19 times. The western megadrought was mentioned 14 times, and Hurricane Ida was mentioned eight times. Summer flooding mentions, which included Chinese, European, and global stories, occurred eight times. European wildfires were mentioned three times, while the European heat wave was mentioned once.
Besides the summer extreme weather events, the extreme cold that hit Texas in February was mentioned seven times on evening news last year. The Madagascar drought was mentioned three times (all on ABC’s World News Tonight), while December’s Midwestern tornadoes and a worsening Central American drought were mentioned twice each.
Morning news shows aired 123 segments in 2021 which featured discussion of extreme weather events, representing 34% of their 363 overall climate segments. This included 84 segments that dealt with various extreme weather events that occurred primarily during the summer months, including U.S. and European wildfires, U.S. heat waves, global flooding, hurricanes, and the western U.S. drought.
CBS Mornings covered these events in 31 climate segments. ABC’s Good Morning America mentioned these events in 30 climate segments, while NBC’s Today covered these in 26 climate segments. Summer U.S. heat waves were the most-mentioned extreme weather event, occurring 29 times, and 13 of these mentions dealt specifically with the Pacific Northwest heat wave. Wildfires in California and other western states were mentioned 22 times. Hurricane Ida was mentioned 20 times, while the western U.S. drought was mentioned 15 times.
Other major extreme weather events covered by broadcast morning news shows last year included the extreme cold in Texas, the March and December tornados that ravaged parts of the U.S. Midwest, the Madagascar drought, and Tropical Storm Henri.
Sunday morning political shows aired 13 segments that featured discussion of extreme weather, an improvement over years prior when the shows rarely discussed the issue. The most frequently discussed extreme weather events on the Sunday shows in 2021 were the western U.S. drought, which was mentioned four times, followed by western U.S. wildfires and global extreme weather, which were mentioned three times each.
President Biden’s climate agenda
Climate action was a key pillar of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020. As a candidate, his platform included a $2 trillion spending plan that aimed to achieve net zero emissions for the U.S. by 2050 and pledges to rejoin the Paris climate agreement and ban fracking on federal lands.
Since taking office in January 2021, President Biden has announced numerous climate initiatives that have garnered coverage by TV news shows. Some of the major moments included signing a slate of climate executive orders on January 27; hosting a two-day virtual climate summit in April that was attended by 40 world leaders; pursuing his Build Back Better agenda during the summer and fall with the introduction of two major packages, the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation budget bill, both containing massive climate spending; and attending COP26 in November with many members of his cabinet.
Presidential climate actions or statements have played a key role in previous iterations of Media Matters’ annual broadcast study; for example, then-President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord was a big talking point in 2017, while climate change’s role in the presidential election was a major driver of climate coverage in the 2020 study.
Nightly news shows aired 35 segments in 2021 that included a discussion of the various climate initiatives and actions undertaken by the Biden administration, or 19% of their total climate segments. CBS Evening News referenced Biden climate actions in 13 segments, while ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News referenced Biden climate actions in 11 segments each.
Overall, climate components of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda represented by the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the budget reconciliation bill were mentioned 17 times on broadcast nightly news last year; there were also five mentions of the global climate summit in April, followed by three mentions each of both his January climate executive orders and the administration’s decision to rejoin the Paris climate agreement.
Morning news shows aired 56 segments that covered the various climate initiatives put forth by the Biden administration this past year — accounting for 15% of overall climate coverage. Mentions of either the bipartisan infrastructure bill or Biden’s Build Back Back agenda occurred 26 times. Biden’s Global Climate Summit on Earth Day was mentioned 10 times, while his decision to rejoin the Paris climate accord was mentioned eight times (on the flip side, Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement was mentioned seven times).
CBS aired 25 morning show segments on Biden’s climate initiatives; it was also the only network to mention the administration’s electric vehicle sales goal. NBC aired 22 morning segments on Biden’s climate initiatives; it was the only network to mention how the Biden administration is making climate change a national security priority. ABC aired nine segments that discussed Biden administration climate initiatives; it was also the only network to mention Biden’s offshore wind expansion plan.
Sunday morning political shows dedicated 27 of their 60 climate segments last year (45%) to discussing Biden’s climate actions. The infrastructure bill and the president’s Build Back Better agenda were the main drivers of the Sunday shows’ climate coverage, accounting for 19 of the 27 segments. Biden’s executive orders on climate change in January as well as his decision to rejoin the Paris climate accord were also featured in these segments.
But while some coverage was dedicated to Biden’s seminal climate spending in both the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation budget bill, morning and evening news shows missed numerous chances to connect these spending packages to climate stories.
A total of 43 climate segments on corporate broadcast TV news shows in 2021 — 26 on morning news and 17 on evening news – featured a mention or discussion of the climate elements of either Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill or his Build Back Better agenda. However, there were vastly more times where climate was mentioned but glossed over in segments on this legislation. Climate change was just a passing mention — meaning it was referenced along with a litany of other items and never expanded upon in the segment — in at least 104 of these segments. Morning and evening news shows thus missed ample opportunities to explain why the climate elements of his agenda are extremely important, and maybe the last chance to pass meaningful climate legislation in the near future.
Inclusions of the infrastructure bill or Build Back Better in climate segments were generally brief. Many of these mentions came in segments about COP26 in November discussing Biden’s arrival and plans at COP26, along with his agenda back home.
It wasn’t just coverage of the president’s Build Back Better agenda that missed opportunities for substantive climate discussion — climate change was a passing mention in 27 segments on the G7 meetings in June. None of these G7 segments discussed climate in depth, despite the important climate news to come out of these meetings. For example, G7 leaders pledged to give $100 billion yearly to poorer nations to help them adapt to climate change. The countries also committed to keeping alive the goal of limiting global warming to less than 1.5 C. Viewers of these segments that glossed over these commitments thus came away from the G7 segments with zero understanding of the importance of climate to these meetings.
COP26
The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), which took place in Glasgow, Scotland, over a two-week period in November, was another key driver of climate coverage for broadcast TV news shows in 2021. The most important world climate gathering to date, the conference was billed as the “last best chance” to achieve the goals of the Paris climate accord.
Nightly news shows aired 24 segments — 13% of their 181 total climate segments in 2021 — that centered on the global climate conference. ABC’s World News Tonight ran nine such segments on COP26; CBS Evening News ran eight segments, and NBC Nightly News ran seven.
Morning news shows discussed COP26 in a combined 40 climate segments, constituting 11% of overall morning news climate coverage. ABC referenced the conference in 12 segments, CBS in 11 segments, and NBC in 16 segments.
Sunday morning political shows discussed COP26 in seven segments. NBC’s Meet the Press referenced it three times, followed by CBS’ Face the Nation, which referenced it twice. Both ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos and Fox News Sunday referenced it once.
PBS NewsHour’s climate segments in 2021 were similar to its corporate broadcast counterparts in terms of what drove coverage. Both Biden administration climate actions and extreme weather were discussed the most, referenced across 45 of the show's 151 total climate segments last year. The infrastructure bill and Biden’s Build Back Better agenda were mentioned in 16 segments. Hurricane Ida was the most-mentioned extreme weather event on the show, referenced in nine climate segments. However, COP26 wasn’t as big of a driver of coverage compared to nightly news shows on ABC, CBS, or NBC, mentioned in just 12 segments.
Other notable drivers
Other notable drivers of climate coverage on broadcast news in 2021 included climate impacts and climate solutions. Impacts were mostly discussed within the context of climate change influencing certain types of extreme weather events, including drought, heat waves, hurricanes, and wildfires. Many mentions of climate solutions came within the context of Biden’s climate initiatives or COP26, including mentions where shows framed climate action as a way to create jobs in the already growing clean energy sector or generally touted the economic benefits of clean energy.
In 2020, clean energy jobs or the economic benefits of clean energy were mentioned only four times. In 2021, this number shot up, with clean energy jobs or economic benefits referenced in varying capacities 26 times within solutions segments on morning and nightly news shows.
Nightly news discussed climate’s impact on public health in 15 segments; its impacts on marine life as well as agriculture and food were each mentioned in 10 segments. Its impact on melting ice was mentioned in nine segments, while the economic impact of climate change was mentioned in seven segments. Other impact mentions included two on winemaking, and one each on the cicada emergence, the Great Barrier Reef, and Florida’s red tides.
Notable solutions included six segments on electric transportation and four on the need to harden or modernize the electric grid.
Morning news discussed climate change’s impacts on melting ice 21 times, and sea level rise 20 times. Impacts on marine life were mentioned 16 times, impacts on food and agriculture were mentioned 15 times, and impacts on public health were mentioned 10 times. Unique impact mentions included two on coastal erosion, two on alcoholic beverages, one on mental health (climate anxiety), and one on a shift in the Earth's axis. Additionally, there were three mentions on how climate change is a national security issue. Wars, like the one in Ukraine now, worsen the global climate crisis, and it’s important to make that point in TV news coverage of climate.
Notable solutions coverage on morning shows in 2021 included 10 mentions on electrifying transportation, four on wind energy (both onshore and offshore), and two specific to investing in green infrastructure, the need to reduce methane emissions, and consuming plant-based products.
Impacts not related to extreme weather events and solutions did not play as big of a role in driving climate coverage on Sunday shows as they did on morning and evening shows. The economic impact of climate change and sea-level rise were mentioned four times each, while climate’s impact on making viruses worse was mentioned once. For solutions, clean energy was mentioned seven times, electric vehicles three times, and suing fossil fuel companies was mentioned once.
