Climate Change and the News: an international perspective

During this discussion, I would like to explore how climate change is represented in the media by analyzing three different articles.

Making use of my foreign languages knowledge, I think it would be very interesting for me to compare an article written for an Italian newspaper, a German one and and American one, identifying as well the three different methodology of reporting.

I tried selecting of all three countries some news providers well known and accredited in order to make the comparison the most equal possible.

Article 1: Italy

https://www.ilmessaggero.it/salute/ricerca/allergie_nuove_ottobre_mix_pollini_cosa_sono-6995145.html

Summary: This article discusses how the pollen allergies will continue in the future to be present not only in the typical spring and summer seasons, but throughout the whole year. The cause of this change: climate change. There will be an increase of 200% of the production of pollen by plants, as reported by the Società Italiana di Allergologia, Asma, e Immunologia Clinica (SIAAIC) - Italian Society of Allergology, Asthma and Clinical Immunology. Moreover, they claim the symptoms of allergies might change and worsen.

Analyzing this piece of news, I can notice several biases (maybe good to acknowledge as well my own bias by being an Italian very skeptical of Italians). The Messaggero generally tends towards a more leftist conservative view. Being so, I can notice that the extremists view they're reporting and the vocabulary they use ("never will exist anymore calm seasons" or "climate change is contorting the seasonal cycle") is aiming more towards a shocking, reactive effect on the reader rather than just simply creating a piece of accurate and truthful information to educate the reader.

In saying so, I can also highlight the fact that, even being the scientific research possibly accurate, the only source of information backing up this claim is some small Italian Society from North Italy (Verona). There is no actual published paper on the matter to corroborate the climate predictions, nor I can read any real explanation on how it's climate change that leads to the increase in pollens (is it the increased functioning of the photosynthesis? or the higher temperature?).

In conclusion, the article is overall very "user friendly" as it provides a very valuable piece of information to the general reader since many people are more and more affected by seasonal allergies, as well as concluding with some doctors recommendations. However, I can easily notice that it would conveniently impress the uneducated reader who would then share it with others with no source checks.

Article 2: Germany

https://www.welt.de/wissenschaft/article238231149/Klimaveraenderung-Warum-riesige-Eisflaechen-in-der-Antarktis-kollabieren.html

Summary: The article wants to give a scientific explanation as to why two ice shelves broke away from the Antarctic Peninsula as apparently it claims there had been no explanation until now. The goal is also to understand the root causes of this disaster in order to avoid that more ice shelves further collapse into the ocean.

First of all, important to notice that the media sharing the article, the newspaper Die Welt, is one of the major news providers in Germany, with a long standing history of collaborations with international papers such as The Daily Telegraph or The Times. From this I believe I can effortlessly notice the strictly academical and factual way of writing as well as the professional editing of the text. Moreover, it is generally acknowledged to be conservative and center right, which I believe transpires very clearly in the unemotional attachment the writer shows towards the issue at stake (melting Antarctic glaciers) and just strict scientific corroboration of the discovered knowledge. 

Overall, the article is really good in terms of academic sourcing, it quotes the exact name of the researcher who discovered the news, Jonathan Wille from the Université Grenoble Alpes, who can then easily be fact checked in the following portal and all his publications as well corroborated, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jonathan-Wille.

Moreover, I really appreciate how the science behind the discovery is very easily explained to even a not so knowledgeable reader in order to understand the causes behind this melting ices: "Bands of air currents transport warm, humid air masses from the subtropics and temperate latitudes over long distances towards the poles. They can lead to extreme weather, such as heat waves, heavy rainfall, storms and rough seas,:

Overall, really good article with scientific evidence distinctly explained. On the other hand, it would have been even more personal, in my opinion, for example to explain a bit more about the causes of climate change to also use this piece of news to increase the awareness of the reader and spread knowledge on how we can impact climate change.

Article 3: Britain

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62648912/

Summary: The article is discussing the severe drought season we had past summer 2022 all around Europe (worst in 500 years). After sharing some data percentages from the Global Drought Observatory (European Commission research wing), it continues briefly explaining the consequences of such events: hydroelectric power shortage, trees and crops prematurely dying and spreading wildfires in several regions).

The article is quite short and easily read. It's made up of two main parts, firstly sharing some numbers and secondly some explanations of the effects to the above given figures, with all sentences short and not too elaborated.

The source seems entirely reliable (EU Commission) and the percentages are easily corroborated through a Google search. Even though the data provided and the following explanations are mostly factual and academic, I'm still lacking here a bit the overall explanation as to why these droughts are caused by climate change. In my opinion, many people assume that the science behind this is well known, however the average reader will just assume drought = climate change without actually understanding how the two are linked together. Moreover, my question here to the writer would be, why now? How come this summer in particular we have experienced such a peak in the average European temperature?

Furthermore, one interesting thing to notice is that the writer's name is not reported (at least I cannot find it), this to me signifies that the article itself is nothing more than simple fact sharing about the current situation (it was published in August, during the drought itself) in order to update the casual or usual reader on the matter. Even so, luring the spectator into clicking on the news by reading the very impactful title "Europe's drought the worst in 500 years".

Overall, useful piece of information as it provides some key figures to understand the ongoing climate crisis, however not extensive enough to be considered a consolidated piece of news valuable to provide a correct and researched understanding of the present situation.