“Faced with a climate emergency, journalists should not keep reporting news the same old way. That’s the thinking behind a path-breaking innovation in climate journalism launched this March in France, where the national public broadcaster, France Télévisions, is dramatically changing how it reports on weather. And since weather is a staple of news coverage the world over, this is an innovation that journalists everywhere should know about.
Traditional weather reports are out at two of France’s main public TV channels. Instead, the France 2 and France 3 channels present a nightly “weather-and-climate journal,” complete with a sparkling new studio and a logo that joins the words meteo — French for weather report — and climat.
Viewers of these meteo climat journals still see plenty of maps dotted with temperature numbers and snazzy graphics depicting storm systems blowing in from the Atlantic. The on-air presenter, Anaïs Baydemir, still talks about how hot or cold it will be in Paris, Marseille, and other parts of the country, and how likely it is to rain. But the weather is now presented in the context of climate change; viewers hear about how the weather they are experiencing may be affected by the overheating of the planet.”
A Path-breaking Innovation in Climate Journalism — Covering Climate Now
