Some of the nation’s largest liberal foundations are spearheading an initiative to infuse climate alarmism into newsrooms by urging journalists across various fields to adopt leftist strategies and messaging when reporting on climate issues.
The Climate Blueprint for Media Transformation emerged from a 2023 climate conference organized by the Solutions Journalism Network and Covering Climate Now. The Solutions Journalism Network receives funding from prominent left-leaning foundations such as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation. The Gates Foundation has played a key role in initiatives against meat consumption, while the Hewlett Foundation has a history of influencing media coverage.
Their impact is evident in the Climate Blueprint, a comprehensive 14-part guide outlining how journalists should approach climate change coverage. Each section is authored by different journalists or activists and addresses topics such as “Community Engagement” and “Climate Justice.”
The guide begins with a segment titled “The Everything Story,” where Covering Climate Now’s deputy director, Andrew McCormick, urges journalists to “take bold action” by incorporating climate change into stories across all beats, including crime and sports.
Covering Climate Now co-founder Kyle Pope reinforced his colleague’s message in the Columbia Journalism Review on Monday, expressing frustration that the Kardashian family receives more media attention than the issue of rising ocean temperatures. He asserted that climate change has only started to receive adequate coverage “very recently” and called on journalists to take action and “report on the most important story on Earth.”
In the Blueprint’s section, on “Community Engagement,” “India Currents” audience engagement editor Prachi Singh says that “reporters need to shift from chasing deadlines to meaningfully connecting” with “women, people of color, Indigenous peoples, the LGBTQIA+ community,” and other groups Singh says are more affected by the “climate crisis.”
Investigative journalist Amy Westervelt directly advises reporters to portray individuals associated with the fossil fuel industry as villains. She suggests that journalists identify universities funded by energy companies and cultivate relationships with “one professor who doesn’t particularly like the arrangement,” likely to elicit criticism of their institution.
Conversely, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jennifer Oldham encourages reporters to invest time in building trust with activists, emphasizing that “validation is paramount.” She offers strategies for journalists to effectively cover climate campaigns to ensure they receive the attention they merit.
One such tip: “Be intentional with your language.”
“Do you call an event a ‘demonstration; or a ‘riot’?” Oldham asks. “Words matter. Calling an encounter a ‘violent clash with police’ criminalizes demonstrators without offering a comparable criticism of law enforcement’s actions.”
The Climate Blueprint urges reporters to fully engage with the climate crisis, but it also acknowledges that this approach could be emotionally taxing for journalists.
“Leadership at the publication has taken thoughtful steps to lighten the workload in summer, when heat-driven extreme weather — from wildfires to hurricanes — worsens,” Yessenia Funes, “a New York-based queer Latina journalist,” writes in the Blueprint. “By getting ahead on stories during the lull of winter and spring, the team isn’t overwhelmed by the onslaught of tragedy after summer tragedy.”
“Ultimately, climate and environmental reporters can’t carry this burden alone,” Funes adds. “It is incumbent on the industry to take the time to build resources professionals urgently need — including access to high-quality health care and flexible work schedules that give journalists the time they need to pause and reflect on the stories they’re responsible for sharing and the emotions they’re silently carrying.”
The effort to amplify alarm in climate reporting occurs alongside growing evidence that warnings about the climate crisis may have been exaggerated. The Washington Post recently published a chart indicating that the Earth’s current mean surface temperature is among the lowest it has been in the last 485 million years.
Additionally, this year marks the deadline for the Pentagon’s 2004 predictions to President George W. Bush, which stated that in 20 years, climate change would devastate the world, making Great Britain “Siberian” and leading to nuclear conflict, drought, and famine.
None of these predictions have materialized.
