CBS This Morning notes how climate change is a driver of extreme heat waves
CBS is the only broadcast network so far this week to connect climate change to the current excessive heat
Published
Reporting on a potentially deadly heat wave that is affecting more than 150 million Americans through the weekend, meteorologist and CBS weather contributor Jeff Berardelli noted the link between climate change and extreme heat waves on the July 18 episode of CBS This Morning. That's an all-too-rare occurrence on broadcast TV news.
The science linking human-caused climate change and extreme heat is very strong. Climate change has increased the frequency, size, and duration of extreme heat events. Unless we dramatically reduce carbon emissions, one study found that precedent-setting monthly heat records in 2040 could “become approximately 12 times more likely to occur than in a non-warming world.”
Berardelli pointed to a new study produced as both a research article and a longer report by the Union of Concerned Scientists that found we can expect more extremely hot days in the future. The number of days in the U.S. with a heat index of at least 105 degrees will nearly triple to three weeks by midcentury. These rising temperatures will greatly affect lower-income people, especially those without air conditioning.
Since the start of the heat wave, CBS has been the only broadcast network to mention the science connecting heat waves and climate change. In addition to Berardelli’s segment, another mention came on the July 16 episode of CBS Evening News. In only her second day as host of the program, Norah O’Donnell reported on the heat wave and stated, “Extreme heat, which scientists link to climate change, kills more than 600 Americans a year, making it deadlier than all other severe weather events combined.”
Neither ABC nor NBC has done a segment yet this week on climate change and heat waves. During last summer’s heat dome, the broadcast networks almost completely ignored the impact of climate change on extreme heat: Out of 127 segments the networks aired on that heat wave, only one mentioned climate change -- a segment on CBS This Morning.
From the July 18 episode of CBS This Morning: