8.6 Is the media coverage on climate change accurate?

It depends; the prestige or quality press is getting better (with the possible exception of the Wall Street Journal) but the tabloids tend to be unreliable, presenting contrarian views and adding unnecessary confusion to the debate. Some of the specialised sections hosted by, for example, the BBC and the Guardian newspaper are very good.

There are two main characteristics of articles on climate change in the media. A tendency to pick up on ‘alarmist’ stories, coupled with a weak ‘action’ message so that the overall message is an apocalyptic one, ‘but it'll be OK if you turn off the lights on your way out’.

A third characteristic is a problematic attempt to achieve a ‘balanced view’. Often an interview with somebody who accepts climate change science is ‘balanced’ by another view from a sceptic. This leads to false objectivity, because the vast majority of scientists accept climate change science and the approach merely serves contrarian views. There are people who believe that the Earth is flat (The Flat Earth Society), but nobody would expect them to advise on planning satellite communications or teach Earth Sciences or geography. It's good to promote healthy debate on meaningful aspects of subjects, but not on issues that have been squarely reviewed and rebutted time and time again. Not one of the sceptics’ arguments stands up to any scrutiny, and many of their claims are mischievous and/or false. There are plenty of contentious issues and no shortage of uncertainty on the detail of climate change and the adequacy of responses to it – but the scientific case for it is well established.

These web-based resources provide additional information

  • The Institute of Public Policy Research has a report called ‘Warm Words 2: How the climate story is evolving and the lessons we can learn for encouraging public action’ characterising and analysing media coverage of climate change.

  • environmentalresearchweb have a briefing on a paper by Boykoff and Mansfield entitled ‘Media coverage on climate change’ and the tendency to diverge from the scientific consensus, especially in the tabloid press (and notably the Daily Mail).

  • Boykoff and Mansfield published ‘“Ye Olde Hot Aire”: reporting on human contributions to climate change in the UK tabloid press’ in Environmental Research Letters in 2008.

  • RealClimate discusses ‘Global warming delusions at the Wall Street Journal. Another RealClimate posting on the same theme is ‘WSJ editorial board: head still buried in the sand.

8.5 Can I rely on the science in Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth?

9 Why are some scientists sceptical about climate change?