How TV News Can Help Save the Planet

The document calls for local US television news to move beyond the perception that climate change is a distant or academic issue. It highlights the National Climate Assessment as a tool for reporters to document how no American community is immune to climate effects, noting that poorer communities and communities of color face disproportionate risks. To support this, Covering Climate Now is launching 'The Climate Station,' a free training program for local TV reporting teams.

• Local television news in the United States often views climate change as a "creeping disaster most likely to show up somewhere else," which acts as a "dangerous impediment to better coverage."
• The National Climate Assessment indicates that "no community in America is going to escape the effects of climate change," with specific regional impacts including intensifying hurricanes in the Southeastern US, drought in the Midwest, and fires in the West.
• Climate impacts are distributed unequally within communities; poorer areas lack air conditioning and green space, while communities of color are more frequently located in flood-vulnerable areas.
• Local television is a critical medium for climate communication because it "consistently outranks the national press" in media trust surveys, yet climate coverage is currently concentrated in well-resourced national newsrooms.
• Covering Climate Now is implementing 'The Climate Station,' a training initiative providing sessions, feedback, and support to equip local TV stations to cover the climate crisis in their own communities.

APA

Pope, K., & González, E. (2023). How TV News Can Help Save the Planet. Covering Climate Now. https://coveringclimatenow.org/from-us-story/how-tv-news-can-help-save-the-planet/

Chicago

Pope, Kyle, and Elena González. How TV News Can Help Save the Planet. Covering Climate Now, 2023. https://coveringclimatenow.org/from-us-story/how-tv-news-can-help-save-the-planet/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Pope |first1=Kyle |last2=González |first2=Elena |title=How TV News Can Help Save the Planet |publisher=Covering Climate Now |date=29 November 2023 |url=https://coveringclimatenow.org/from-us-story/how-tv-news-can-help-save-the-planet/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{pope2023how, author = {Pope, Kyle and González, Elena}, title = {{How TV News Can Help Save the Planet}}, publisher = {Covering Climate Now}, year = {2023}, month = nov, url = {https://coveringclimatenow.org/from-us-story/how-tv-news-can-help-save-the-planet/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }