The views expressed in these articles are those of the individual authors.
The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media is grateful for the generous financial support of the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment and of individual Yale University alumni.
DURHAM, N.C. - When Jay Hamilton was in the market for a new hybrid car last summer, Google knew it.
As he scoured the Internet for the best deal, Google’s algorithms connected him to advertisements for hybrids. Now Hamilton, a professor of economics and public policy at Duke University, argues that similar targeted advertisements could provide a new funding model for public affairs journalism - including coverage of climate change.
You might think it would be news when MIT scientist Kerry Emanuel, who has influentially linked global warming to stronger hurricanes, reconsiders his views in light of new evidence.
Two respected climate journalists - Eric Berger of the Houston Chronicle and Andrew C. Revkin of The New York Times - thought so. But few other traditional news outlets seemed to find time for the story.
Last summer, when Oregon high school teacher Greg Craven wanted to tell young people about the Earth’s warming climate, he went to where many of them live - on the Internet.
It wasn’t long before his Red Bull-fueled burst of creativity, “The Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See” became a YouTube hit. More than four million people worldwide have seen the video - an argument for action that breaks down the IPCC’s lengthy analyses into two choices and four possible futures.
CAMBRIDGE, MA. - Mass media coverage of climate change has suffered from a hostility to science, a failure to vet biased sources, and an adherence to a warped sense of balance, two prominent academics said at a recent MIT event on climate change.
The remarks, made at a conference titled “Disruptive Environments” and held on April 10-11, came as part of an opening panel discussion on “communicating climate change” featuring New York Times science reporter Andrew C. Revkin. Some 100 MIT and other Boston-area university faculty members and students and others attended the opening session.