Climate news and accounting comparability

Over the past two decades, the global news industry has embarked upon a major project of economic, organizational, and technological restructuring. In organizational terms, successive waves of mergers and buyouts have yielded a global news landscape where most of the larger firms are owned by shareholders and run by executives whose singular focus is on rationalizing news production and improving profitability. Although in some cases, these shareholders and executives have used their authority to influence climate coverage directly, more often their goals are non-ideological: reducing labor costs and increasing revenues. At the same time, in a parallel development, the digital media revolution not only has spawned a host of new online competitors but also has cut deeply into the advertising revenue once enjoyed by traditional media firms. Within legacy news organizations, these industrial and technological trends have converged to dramatically intensify the work pressures facing environmental journalists. For example, in an effort to reduce costs, many firms have reduced newsroom staff to a small core of multi-tasking reporters, supported by a wider web of part-time freelancers. In this process, the science and environment beat is often the first to go, with environmental specialists among the first to be reassigned or downsized (and pushed into freelance work). For all reporters, there is increased pressure to produce more stories in less time on multiple media platforms, a trend that, in turn, enhances the power of special interests to influence climate coverage through public relations and other external information subsidies. Due to these converging industrial and technological trends, environmental reporters now work in a new media ecosystem that is complex, subject to contradictory pressures, and in many ways hostile to the production of high-quality climate news. When the environmental beat is cut, climate change often becomes the purview of general assignment reporters who lack experience and expertise. For their part, freelance specialists continue to cover climate news, but their ability to sustain this coverage over the long term is constrained by their part-time status. Finally, although niche climate blogs have provided welcome spaces for environmental journalists to produce in-depth coverage, these outlets usually reach only tiny audiences composed of the already-engaged. In short, without significant action, the regrettable status quo of climate news—that is, an episodic sprinkling of climate coverage scattered across the media ecosystem—will continue indefinitely. Policy-makers should therefore restore long-term institutional and economic support for environmental journalists specializing in climate science and policy.

Climate news avoidance remains understudied, often assumed to follow the same patterns as general news avoidance. This cross-country study explores associations with climate news avoidance across eight countries (the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, India, and Pakistan) to test whether individual-level drivers are consistent across diverse contexts or vary by country. Our findings reveal varying levels of climate news avoidance, with disengagement consistently linked to being younger and to self-identification with the political right. Negative evaluations of news emerge as key drivers of avoidance. Emotions play a role in some cases but their influence is limited and varies across countries. By focusing on climate news, this study advances our understanding of how and why people disengage, offering a more nuanced perspective beyond general news avoidance.

Climate change is no longer a scientific issue; it's quickly becoming a mental health crisis, especially for Pakistan's younger generation. While news headlines scream about melting glaciers, deadly floods, and increasing temperatures, young minds are quietly soaking up a never ending flow of fear, uncertainty, and hopelessness. This study explores the psychological effect of such news, uncovering the phenomenon of eco-anxiety, a growing emotional condition of fear of ecological apocalypse and helplessness over the future. Backed by two broad objectives, the study examines the effect of climate change news on the mental health of Pakistani youth and how they attempt to cope. It also raises two research questions to examine the association between media exposure to climate related issues and emotional distress. Adopting a quantitative research approach with a survey design, the research is gathered data from a purposive sample of 300 young people from Pakistan. A structured questionnaire is used to assess their levels of news exposure, anxiety symptoms, and coping. The data are analyzed employing pie charts to illustrate emotional trends and psychological impacts. The research is revolving around two hypotheses, one concerning the frequency of climate news exposure and its connection with anxiety, and the other concerning the media framing effect on youth mental health. A vast majority of respondents record moderate to severe degrees of eco-anxiety, and are instigated by persistent exposure to scary and alarming climate news. Fear, anxiety, and hopelessness characterize the mood. The report concludes that while media coverage is required for the purpose of informing, it’s biased, apocalyptic presentation may be damaging to more than it serves. It recommends that news outlets move toward solution oriented reporting, and climate education and mental health services become integral to the plans for reaching young people. Only by reversing the narrative from fear to empowerment can we allow the next generation to manage and act on hope.

PurposeThe burgeoning literature on climate-related finance suggests that climate change influences financial markets. Building on this foundation, the present study aims to investigate the time-varying predictive power of news related to physical and transition climate risks for financial instability across the financial systems of the US, EU, and the ASEAN+3 countries (comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus China, Japan, and South Korea), from January 2003 to August 2022, on a monthly basis.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, we use the VAR-based Granger-causality test in the presence of instabilities introduced by Rossi and Wang (2019), and combine it with the innovative rolling and recursive bootstrap time-varying Granger-causality approach of Shi et al. (2020). These methods were chosen for their capacity to effectively capture the dynamic influence of climate risk-related news on financial instability over time, offering an advantage over traditional constant parameter regressions and standard Granger causality methods. Additionally, we make use of the Media Climate Change Concerns indices recently developed by Ardia et al. (2022), coupled with regional financial stress indices.FindingsOur findings indicate that the predictive power of climate change news for financial instability is substantial but varies over time. This influence becomes especially pronounced during periods that align with specific local and global events. In the US and EU, the predictive power is influenced by a combination of global and local macroeconomic, political, health, and climate-related factors. In contrast, ASEAN+3 financial systems show a stronger response to regional and local events, with comparatively less sensitivity to global events.Practical implicationsThe results of this study are noteworthy for investors, highlighting increased market instability during periods with prevalent climate change news. Investors can adjust their strategies to mitigate risks and respond to macro-events that trigger climate news-related market instability, while considering regional sensitivities. Similarly, these findings are significant for policymakers, emphasizing the need to consider the influence of climate news on financial markets when designing regulatory frameworks. This could involve enacting measures to stabilize the financial system during periods of significant climate news. Policymakers might consider developing macroprudential regulations to bolster financial institutions’ resilience against climate change news effects.Originality/valueThis study pioneers the exploration of how climate change news affects financial system stability at the macro level. It extends beyond traditional research, typically focusing on direct effects of climate change in banking and asset markets, by examining broader implications of climate risk-related news for financial system instability. Furthermore, this study enhances our understanding of the predictors of global financial stability by examining the financial systems of the US, the EU, and ASEAN+3. It specifically investigates the impact of climate change news, a topic not extensively explored in previous research focusing mainly on macro-factors such as financial liberalization and business cycles.

In order to accomplish more multi-dimensional analyses of media logic one needs to study how journalists grapple with news issues in their expanding development, such as the revolutionary development of the climate issue in the news. The present analysis is based on interviews with 14 Swedish environmental journalists from various news media, who have been part of editorial concentrations on climate news. The results consist of three ways of conceptualizing the climate issue among the journalists: as inside, outside, and beyond media logic. These conceptualizations give rise to three conflicting types of journalistic creativity, more precisely, the ability to effectively insert the climate issue ‘into’ media logic; the ability to go as far ‘outside’ media logic as possible while remaining credible by arraying the climate issue in ‘scientific language’; and finally, the ability to think beyond the media-logic ‘box’ and do something about it (to change journalism).

As 2010 unfolds, environmental journalism around the world is fraught with capacity challenges to collectively cover complex and dynamic stories at the human– environment interface. Recent years have seen significant reductions in journalistic ecosystem services. Examples abound: CNN slashed their entire science, technology, and environment reporting unit; the Seattle Post-Intelligencer discontinued their print run; the Los Angeles Times had cut their newsroom staff in half in the last dozen years; the Rocky Mountain News shuttered their doors altogether. It has been estimated that approximately 25% of the news industry’s workforce has been cut since 2001 (Pew 2009; Boykoff 2009). Concurrently, the number of newspapers that featured weekly science sections atrophied, losing nearly two-thirds in the past two decades (Pew 2009; Carroll 2006). In many places in the Global South, journalists continue to lack the capacity and training to cover the intricacies of climate science and policy, as well as lack access to clear, timely and understandable climate-related resources and images (Harbison 2006; Shanahan 2009). Journalists, editors, and organizations surviving newsroom cuts and shortfalls have been left to cover the contours of climate change along tighter deadlines, and with increased multi-platform demands (video, audio and text along with blogs, Twitter, Grogs (see www.getgrogger.com), YouTube postings etc). Moreover, in the name of efficiency, reporters increasingly cover a vast range of beats, making it as difficult as ever to satisfactorily portray the complexities of climate change. Put simply, journalists and editors striving for fair and accurate reporting are getting swamped by these larger scale pressures (Boykoff 2007). Yet in this perilous landscape, 2009 ended with soaring media coverage of climate change around the world. Climate news seemingly flooded the public arena. The

One of the most significant and understudied changes in climate journalism in recent years, and the focus us this study, is the establishment of new niche sites. These sites, which are dedicated exclusively to covering climate-related issues, are now some of the most important sources of climate information. Drawing on interviews with site founders and editors, we explore the experiences and knowledge of these climate journalism innovators to glean their perspective on the state of climate coverage in general and changes to the field, including an emerging interplay between climate journalism and other actors in the broader information environment. Our conversations suggest that in response to changing circumstances—including heightened urgency due to the physical realities of the climate catastrophe and the hybridity of the media environment—journalists are reshaping how climate news is being produced as well as blurring institutional boundaries between journalism, science, and advocacy. In doing so, we argue, they are forging a path toward stronger public interest journalism.

This paper highlights some important issues contained in the draft report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The first issue focuses on the global warming estimate of IPCC indicating an increase in the global temperature. In 1995 IPCC estimates put the average global temperature increase by the end of this century at 1.5-4.0 degrees Celsius while in this report the newest estimate is 1.5-6.0 degrees Celsius. The second issue states that a firmer association between human activities and climate has emerged. Even the most skeptical climatologist in the IPCC group has conceded that warming bears an anthropogenic handprint. Another important issue is the rising evidence suggesting that past global temperature shifts in climate may have been triggered by major shifts in patterns of ocean circulation: the major conveyor of heat from low to high altitudes. Overall it is noted that the 2000 IPCC report raises the prospect of serious risk to a higher level and although there seems to be progress from the initiatives of the private sector governments ought to be paying more attention and address the issue immediately.

This article analyzes the perspective of journalists on the media coverage of climate change crisis in Pakistan. For this purpose, 26 journalists who were responsible for climate related events were interviewed. Overall, the study found that professional and economic factors were responsible for the lack of media interest in this important topic. Professionally, journalists said they were required to report on newsworthy events. Since apart from the occasional climate related destructive events, most of the climate news lacked drama, sensationalism and political consequences—thus not fulfilling the news selection criteria and hence were ignored. Likewise, media in Pakistan is facing financial crunch. Climate news needed dedicated reporters and lot of resources. Comparatively, political news was easy to get and attract larger audiences. As a solution, the journalists called for changes in the existing political discourse on the issue and emphasized that media should play a more socially responsible role to highlight the enormity of situation in Pakistan.

Climate News and Accounting Comparability

This paper asks how people make sense of climate issues in the news. As part of a study in Norway, with repeated interviews and open-ended questionnaires, we invited people to share their thoughts on three real and recent news stories. The examples were related to climate change on local, national and global scales, with varying levels of conflict and different narrative frameworks and visual components. We find that news articles with different characteristics invited three modes of sense-making: inconclusive reasoning, moral stance-taking, and reiterating climate discourse. Our study contributes to untangle central questions about how journalism with various forms of anchoring might mitigate low engagement with climate news. Methodologically, the study provides innovation in the form of a qualitative study with real news examples. In concluding, we discuss why the most important aspects of climate change make the least sense as news.

Whose voices are most likely to receive news coverage in the US debate about climate change? Elite cues embedded in mainstream media can influence public opinion on climate change, so it is important to understand whose perspectives are most likely to be represented. Here, I use plagiarism-detection software to analyze the media coverage of a large random sample of business, government, and social advocacy organizations' press releases about climate change (n = 1,768), examining which messages are cited in all articles published about climate change in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today from 1985 to 2014 (n = 34,948). I find that press releases opposing action to address climate change are about twice as likely to be cited in national newspapers as are press releases advocating for climate action. In addition, messages from business coalitions and very large businesses are more likely than those from other types of organizations to receive coverage. Surprisingly, press releases from organizations providing scientific and technical services are less likely to receive news coverage than are other press releases in my sample, suggesting that messages from organizations with greater scientific expertise receive less media attention. These findings support previous scholars' claims that journalistic norms of balance and objectivity have distorted the public debate around climate change, while providing evidence that the structural power of business interests lends them heightened visibility in policy debates.

Climate News and Asset Valuations

Those who follow weather and climate news are used to seeing references to “ice cores” in reports about earth's past climates. For example, on March 8, 2016, the British newspaper The Guardian repo...

The American Meteorological Society views introductory college-level courses to be important avenues for promoting scientific literacy among the public. Additionally, it is from these courses that future teachers often receive their only college-level training in the geosciences. As such, the AMS Education Program considers the development of high-caliber, scientifically-authentic educational materials to be one of its top priorities. In striving to reach that goal, the AMS has produced a suite of introductory college-level courses that engage students by investigating current topics in Earth science making use of the most up-to-date, real-world environmental data. Developed by the AMS with support from NSF and NOAA, AMS Ocean Studies, AMS Weather Studies, and coming soon with support from NASA, AMS Climate Studies, are introductory college-level courses available for implementation at undergraduate institutions nationwide. These highly-motivational courses place students in learning environments where they investigate the world ocean and atmosphere using real-world, current environmental data. More than 500 colleges and universities throughout the United States have already offered these unique courses, with more than 70 percent offered in online or blended learning environments. Each course consists of a fully-integrated set of printed and online learning materials. AMS Ocean Studies and AMS Weather Studies course packages each include a new, completely revised, hardcover 15-chapter textbook, an Investigations Manual with 30 lab-style activities and a course website providing weekly Current Ocean Studies and Current Weather Studies investigations, along with access to environmental data streams. The Daily Weather Summary provided Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters provides a comprehensive analysis of the synoptic weather in the United States for the previous 24 hours, as well as historical weather events of significance. The Weekly Weather and Climate News and the Weekly Ocean News provide important late-breaking information from these sciences. AMS Climate Studies, which is currently under development and expected to be available fall 2010, will be comprised of a similar suite of learning materials. The AMS Ocean Studies Student Package offers a unique way to study marine science through the use of an inflatable globe. Oceanography comes alive in three-dimensions, helping the student understand complex oceanographie principles. The Investigations Manual utilizes the inflatable globe in many of its activities, demonstrating concepts such as the Coriolis force, plate tectonics, ocean circulation and tidal bulging. Additionally, the intricacies of tsunami trajectories become much clearer when presented to the student in three dimensions. The newest edition of the textbook offers expanded, up-to-date topics including Hydrothermal Vents, Ocean Acidification, Thermohaline Circulation, Tsunami, Beaches and Barrier Islands, Global Climate Change and Arctic Sea Ice. The textbook is most typically used in conjunction with the Investigations Manual and course website, but can also be used alone in a traditional lecture-style course. Instructor support materials are available and include a faculty CD with a faculty manual, chapter test banks, textbook images and other resources. The faculty website contains answer keys for Investigations Manual and Current Ocean Studies questions. The Investigations Manual and Current Ocean Studies activities and test banks are provided in Respondus format, and can be ported into a college's course management system for automated scoring and immediate student feedback. This feature allows for full integration to a college's e-learning environment. The course can be offered by experienced science faculty or those new to teaching the subject matter. Collegial assistance from AMS staff and other course users is available to all new instructors. A simple licensing procedure allows for full institutional access to the Current Investigations, course websites and course management system-compatible files via a secure password-protected entry portal. AMS Ocean Studies, along with the other AMS courses, aims to interest all students in marine science and increase general scientific literacy through the use of real world and current ocean information and events. AMS strongly encourages local implementation of the course at undergraduate institutions in the U.S., Canada, and worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.ametsoc.org/oceanstudies.