How weather reporting is evolving because of climate change
Environmental journalists spoke at the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Tempe on April 26 to discuss how weather reporting is evolving in response to climate change.
The panelists included Sadie Babits, senior supervising climate editor at NPR; Jessica Meszaros, a reporter for west-central Florida's NPR station; Amber Sullins, chief meteorologist for ABC15 in Phoenix; and Paige Vega, climate editor for Vox.
Here are three takeaways from their conversation.
Publicly available weather information should not be taken for granted, Vega said.
A substantial amount of weather and forecast data comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But changes made by the Trump administration will change that data's quality, she said.
'One thing that has happened that is new just in this last month — the weather data we are getting from the agency is likely going to be less reliable, just as they're releasing fewer weather balloons and there is less agency staff to actually do the work,' Vega said. 'I don't think a lot of people or readers or viewers or listeners realize the stakes of this moment and the work that NOAA does.'
Sullins said that after the election, she knew climate data could be a target.
At ABC15, she is trying to stay ahead of the curve by working with her team to track down and record every statistic that she and other reporters at her station might want to use that may not be available in the future, she said.
'In our case, we were literally pulling the data and screenshotting it so that we could at least have a picture of what it looked like,' she said.
Sullins said that at the local level, after a natural disaster, the responsibility of a news organization is to help people address basic human needs.
Beyond that, she said, journalists must be strategic about incorporating the concept of climate change into disaster and other coverage by drawing connections for their audiences.
'I think the more the climate changes here in Phoenix, the more the news that we need to cover is fitting in under climate change,' she said. 'You take the heat and the homeless population, and we had more than 500 people die in Maricopa County alone last summer. So these news stories of homeless people dying on the streets are now climate stories, we have to make those connections and connect the dots.'
She also gave the example of saguaro cactuses. Recent extremely hot summers have caused some to die. Arizonans love saguaros, and connecting their deaths to extreme heat helps audiences understand climate change's effects, she said.
The panelists said producing stories about things people are doing to combat and adjust to climate change can help audiences stay engaged with environmental news.
'We hear a lot of apocalyptic news, not just in the climate space, and I am really eager for stories that point us toward solutions,' Babits said.
Sullins said meaningful work is being done to address climate change across the country.
'Here in Arizona, even if everyone doesn't want to call it climate change,' Sullins said. 'Everyone knows it's getting hotter, and everyone is working toward solutions to mitigate that heat.'
McKenna Manzo is a senior at the University of Arizona and is part of a student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
Coverage of the Society of Environmental Journalists conference is supported by Arizona State University's Cronkite School of Journalism, the University of Arizona, the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust and the Arizona Media Association.
These stories are published open-source for other news outlets and organizations to share and republish, with credit and links to azcentral.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How weather reporting is evolving because of climate change
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