Climate change isn't a niche. Let's stop treating it as one.

Climate change news has a reporting problem. Thanks to the structure of the media, climate change articles have been ghettoized into a unique category of story, a reporting beat, complete with report release occasions, annual events (looking at you, wildfires), protests and counter-protests, and predictable op-eds that encourage or excoriate in turn. The net result is no change to the system – and no uptick in understanding why climate change is important. For climate to become other than a niche that green-leaning readers click on and everyone else politely ignores, the earth needs to be injected into every kind of story – from international breaking news to local elections to the latest fawning feature on a hot new band.

To remedy this, reporters on every beat – politics, business, sports, culture, food – can start to ask questions that address the environmental aspects of the topic they’re covering. And communications people can add earth-angles to stories they pitch.

Why climate change is important

Putting aside the toxic politics, climate change impacts us all. We're familiar by now with the extreme weather phenomena – heatwaves, wildfires and droughts on the one hand, and too much rainfall and floods on the other. But it can feel pretty abstract and far away, a problem for the future, not the now. Sadly, that is not the case. Here are a few hard facts about climate change that I hope will bring home why this matters.

- In the US, wildfires burned over 7 million acres in 2021

- Globally, 31 million people were displaced due to climate-related emergencies in 2020

- Researchers project that within 30 years, up to 95% of the habitat where chimpanzee and gorillas live will be gone, making it very likely that these iconic animals will also disappear.

It’s easy to play out scenarios where resource scarcity increases conflict. Lack of water to irrigate farms will increase the cost of food – and the need to transport it greater distances. The great stories of conflict and migration are already climate change news. We’re just not adding that to the storyline.

Asking earth questions doesn’t have to be hard

As I write this, the Beijing Olympics are getting underway. Typical storylines, in addition to the medal count, are backgrounders on athletes – and people seem fascinated by the diets that fuel elite performances. So a reporter covering this topic might ask, how far is the food traveling to reach them? What local sources of food have been tapped? Is there regenerative agriculture involved? What offsets are you using to account for the carbon impact of importing specialty foods?

By putting spokespeople on notice that these questions are in play, they will in turn prepare to answer them and start to build this into their communications plans. But if we fail to ask these questions in “normal” reporting, the full cost of infrastructure and innovation will be buried, and the opportunity to build a better future will be squandered.

17 questions that make all news climate change news

Business beats

1. How is this project offsetting the carbon used?

2. What alternatives to fossil fuel will be used to do/make/power/transport…

3. What is the source of the funding for this project?

o Follow ups for environmentally disruptive sources: Why was this source selected rather than a more regenerative option? How is the impact of their (practice, business model) being mitigated?

o Follow ups for environmentally regenerative sources: How will this project scale? What are the risks of this funding source?

4. How will this project benefit the local community? How was the local community brought into the decision making around this?

5. How are the raw materials sourced?

6. How would you answer critics who charge that this project will do more harm to the [environmental concern] than good?

Sports, Food and Cultural Beats

7. How far is the material/food/personnel traveling for this? What local resources are being used?

8. How is the band/production minimizing their impact on resources?

9. What would you say to critics who say this is a waste of material/resources?

10. Is the band/production using solar/wind/other alts power in this project?

11. Is palm oil used in this? What alternatives did you look at and why did you settle on it?

Political and News Beats

12. What does the science say on this approach? What data have you used to reach this decision?

13. In what ways is the government/organization offsetting the impact on resources?

14. How was the local community brought into the decision making around this?

15. If elected, how will you help your community build more resilient energy/power/infrastructure?

16. What are your plans to ensure that constituents have clean water/air/?

17. How will you bring innovative jobs to you community?

Reporters, I know you’re pressed for time and don’t often get to ask more than one or two questions, so you may not want to “waste” one on this. But for opportunities where you can, by starting to ask this, you will make it part of the discourse on the news of the day, and get climate change news out of the ghetto it’s in.

And comms people, you should start getting out ahead of this by proactively adding climate change angles to your pitches, prepping your spokespeople to address questions like these, and making climate part of the narrative of your brand, organization, candidate or initiative.

No pressure, but there's kind of a lot at stake here.