![Climate Science Shortchanged in TV Coverage of California Drought](https://fresnoalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/9287609827_31e783887f_z-620x413.jpg)
By George B. KauffmanĀ
California, in its fourth year of an unprecedented drought, with no end in sight and water reserves dwindling, is exactly the type of scenario that climate scientists have warned about. Although new research links the drought to global warming, a new study by FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), the national progressive media watchdog group, shows that, instead of investigating this connection, network news largely ignores it.
FAIR examined ABC, CBS and NBC transcripts from March 1 through April 7 that mentioned Californiaās drought a total of 55 times, a substantial amount of coverage, but only a fraction of the frenzied attention that the Northeastās extreme winter weather received. In the drought segments, global warming was rarely covered, with only three mentions on ABC, two on NBC and one on CBS. Overall, 89% of stories on the drought made no reference to climate change. Even when it was mentioned, the networks preferred to portray climate science as in dispute. They were willing to acknowledge the drought was unprecedented but reluctant to talk about whatās changing Californiaās weather.
California is coming off its hottest year on record, is still amid a drought thatās the deepest on record and is coming out of winter with a snowpack water reserve thatās by far the smallest on record. Media coverage tends to ask whether global warming caused these extremes, but climate scientists say thatās the wrong question. Instead, they focus on whether global warming is increasing the odds for extremes.
Historically, temperatures and precipitation have fluctuated randomly. But as Climate Central reports, global warming is now changing the odds, making it more likely a dry year will also be a warm year, making extreme drought more likely. āIt used to be flipping two coins independently and getting two tails one-quarter of time. Now weāre getting tails on the temperature coin much more often,ā said Stanford Universityās Noah Diffenbaugh. By 2030āor by the time a child born today is in high schoolāclimate scientists expect every single year to be warmer than normal by historic standards.
TV hosts grasp that the drought is unprecedented and are willing to use language to communicate that. āTheyāre saying itās between 500 and a thousand years since theyāve had a drought like this,ā said Al Roker on NBCās Today show. On CBS Evening News, Scott Pelley called the drought āhistoric,ā āexceptionalā and āextreme,ā but the words āclimate changeā are too often off limits. ABC World News Tonight illustrated Californiaās vanishing snowpack, but the long-term trends behind the extreme weather were seldom made visible.
Diffenbaughās study of March 2 gave networks everything they needed to explore the question of whether climate change is worsening Californiaās drought. āCalifornia has experienced more frequent drought years in the last two decades than it has in the past several centuries,ā he reported. āThat observed uptick is primarily the result of rising temperatures in the region, which have climbed to record highs as a result of climate change.ā
But, network news only mentioned the study twice, and both times it was questioned on flimsy grounds. On ABCās Good Morning America, Amy Robach reported that āa new study from Stanford University claims the drought in California is being fueled by human-caused climate change. But some scientists not involved in the study are questioning some of those findings.ā What scientists? Are their concerns valid? The 48-word story left viewers thirsty for answers.
Meanwhile, CBS This Morning asked theoretical physicist Michio Kaku to analyze the study. He launched attacks that werenāt grounded in reality, conflated meteorology and climatology, and then painted the team of Stanford researchers as one loud-mouthed wacko. āMost meteorologists would say its a natural cycle. It comes and goes over a period of years, maybe decades. But last month in Stanford University, some renegade meteorologist said, no, itās global warming. The combination of hot air and dry air is very unusual, and they were saying its manmade activity thatās driving this. This is controversial.ā
Kaku is correct that thereās disagreement, but like many scientists, his emphasis on uncertainty leaves the average TV viewer with the belief that thereās much more disagreement than really exists. āControversialā in this case doesnāt mean the two sides totally disagreeāin fact, thereās widespread agreement that global warming is happening, itās caused by carbon pollution and itās already changing our weather patterns. The controversy here is that one side thinks thereās enough evidence to connect the dots now, whereas the other side wants to wait for more evidence, a situation that would have been clearer if CBS had interviewed a climate scientist.
ABC mentioned the California drought 19 times and topped the list with three mentions of climate change. On one of the more clear connections on ABC World News Sunday, anchor Kendis Gibson stated, āTonight, a strong warning from California Governor Jerry Brown, the Golden Stateās problem may soon be yours,ā leading into this soundbite from Gov. Brown: āI can tell you from California, climate change is not a hoax, weāre dealing with it, and itās damn serious.ā
On NBCās Meet the Press, Chuck Todd also asked Gov. Brown to explain the droughtās climate connection:
TODD: Well, speaking of Mother Nature, this drought issueādirectly attributable to climate change, in your opinion?
BROWN: Look, as they say, the scientists know more about it. I will tell you this, theirāour research results that now say thereās a connection to the current drought and the extreme weather in the east and other parts of the world. The UN has already said thereās going to be 40% of the world will suffer from water shortage.
Hearing directly from a climate scientist might have cleared the air for viewers. Most network coverage of the California drought was long on imagery but short on analysis. For decades, climate scientists have been warning that global warming would lead to more intense heat waves, deeper droughts and reduced snowpack. Now that those predictions are becoming reality before our eyes in California, reporters still arenāt even asking climate questions, let alone directly connecting the dots.
Whatās most confusing is that, unlike some other climate impacts, the story of the California drought is easily told and understood. Weāre not talking about the complicated relationship between climate change, reduced Arctic sea ice, the wobbling polar vortex and the extreme winter weather in the Northeast, another phenomenon reporters didnāt connect to climate change. Connecting heat, drought and lack of snowpack to global warming isnāt difficult. Even dropping in a simple āscientists say these trends are exactly what we can expect more of in a warming worldā would better inform viewers.
Finally, ignoring climate change makes for boring television. There are only so many ways to say the drought is still happening, but climate impacts are a fresh angle that can be told in compelling waysāin large part because pointing out the human role in creating this drought implies that humans can play a role in preventing future ones.
(Authorās note: My piece is based on Miles Grantās excellent, insightful FAIR article (http://fair.org/home/as-drought-grips-california-networks-come-up-dry-on-climate-science).)Ā
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George B. Kauffman, Ph.D., chemistry professor emeritus at Fresno State and a Guggenheim Fellow, is a recipient of the American Chemical Societyās George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education, the Helen M. Free Award for Public Outreach and the Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution, and numerous domestic and international honors. In 2002 and 2011, he was appointed a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society, respectively.