Do you ever wonder how often news stories talk about how climate change affects our health? Do health or climate reporters help us connect the dots about how climate change affects our health? Some researchers have that same question. They looked at whether the health issues caused by climate change or air pollution are discussed in news about climate and air quality. Because climate change and air pollution both have such big impacts on our health, we think that discussing health is important. Because what could be more important: our health and our families’ health? We all want to live where we can thrive and be healthy!
A study looking at climate and health in news articles was published in the medical journal The Lancet Planetary Health. They analyzed news stories in 3 countries (India, China, and the U.S.) from 2012-2023. For the U.S., there were 9.9 million total news stories in 12 years. Of these, 30,000 were about climate change, or 0.3% of all news stories. That may seem small, but good news: over the 12 years of the study, the percentage of climate stories increased, from about 0.15% to 0.6%. If you look at the 30,000 climate change news stories, 2200 or about 7% of the climate change stories mentioned both health and climate. This percentage did not change much over the 12 years.
Another excellent news story by Katie Burke is about health journalists and air pollution. She describes how much impact air pollution has on health: 7 million premature deaths, it’s the second leading risk factor for death – ahead of tobacco use and diet. Air pollution affects our hearts, diabetes, our brains, and maternal and infant health. Her news story is a really good summary of how air pollution affects health. It also has some good links for more reading. She notes that only 12% of medical schools worldwide include air pollution in their formal curriculum. We agree with Katie Burke that air pollution is a good topic for health journalists. The Journal of the American College of Cardiology has almost 500 articles about air pollution and heart disease. The American Thoracic Society (pulmonologists – lung disease specialists) has published over 2000 research studies on air pollution and health. Air pollution is a silent killer that is hard to see every day, we mostly only notice when it’s a major event. But low-level daily exposure causes more damage than most people know about.
All the leading medical organizations including the American Medical Association have statements about climate change and health, or air pollution and health. The Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health is an organization that has over 200 member societies and focuses on climate and health. The Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment also focuses on climate and health. Just a few years ago, over 200 medical journals worldwide published the same commentary that climate change is a health emergency.
Both climate change and air pollution have profound effects on our health. Journalists need to include health when they write news stories about either topic.
We highly recommend reading Katie Burke’s news story, linked here.
Here is the link for the Lancet Planetary Health study of climate and health news reporting.
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