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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged weather

1. February 24, 2011 01:49 PM

   Extreme Measures

   Must reporters cite climate change in every article about severe weather?

   By Curtis Brainard

   Last week, the journal Nature made a big splash in the press with the publication of two studies which found that manmade climate change has contributed to the intensification of heavy rains and increased the likelihood of floods that have, collectively, affected millions of people. After years of hearing the scientific refrain that no single weather event can be attributed...

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2. November 20, 2012 12:15 PM

   Highway to the danger zone

   Following Sandy, HuffPo and NYT dig into the folly of coastal development

   By Curtis Brainard

   Hurricane Sandy renewed the media’s interest in the many foolish ways that we increase our vulnerability to extreme weather. There’s climate change, of course. That came up right away. But carbon pollution isn’t the only, or even the most immediate, thing that we’re doing to imperil ourselves. There’s also relentless, right-up-to-the-water’s-edge-in-a-floodplain coastal development. After focusing on global warming in the...

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3. November 6, 2012 11:00 AM

   Lemmings like us

   Businessweek’s climate-change broadside is powerful, but ignores the allure of waterfront property

   By Curtis Brainard

   Hurricane Sandy finally got the media talking about climate change last week, but Bloomberg Businessweek spoke the loudest with a bold, red cover that featured a picture of a flooded New York City street and the words, “It’s Global Warming, Stupid,” in big, black letters above it. As the cyclone spun up the eastern seaboard, I warned against making overstatements...

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4. November 3, 2011 12:30 PM

   Like the Odds of a Heart Attack?

   The limits of medical analogies for the climate-weather connection

   By Curtis Brainard

   With the latest death toll from floods in Thailand reaching nearly 400 people, reporters have had yet another opportunity to explore the connection between climate change and extreme weather events. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed by Michael Lemonick, a senior writer for Climate Central, a nonprofit journalism and science organization based in Princeton, New Jersey. The...

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5. April 2, 2012 11:00 AM

   Q&A: The NYT’s Justin Gillis

   The recent Oakes Award winner talks about how to keep climate on the front page

   By Curtis Brainard

   At the end of March, Columbia University awarded the 2011 Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism to New York Times reporter Justin Gillis for his ongoing multimedia series, Temperature Rising, examining the fundamental tenets of manmade climate change. Articles in the series, most of which appear on the front page, provide in-depth, back-to-basics assessments of global warming’s effects on glaciers,...

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6. February 8, 2012 12:00 PM

   What Drives Public Opinion About Climate Change?

   Politicians, economy more influential than media coverage, study says

   By Curtis Brainard

   The media influence public opinion about climate change, but not as much as national politicians and the state of the economy do, according to a new analysis of eight years of polling data. Over time, activists have pointed their fingers in many directions while trying to explain society’s failure to address the threat of climate change. Scientists, policymakers, captains of...

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