A number of major news organizations worldwide, ranging from Scientific American and The Columbia Journalism Review to The Guardian and Al Jazeera, have signed a pledge to begin referring to “climate change” as a “climate emergency” in their reporting.
“Scientific American has agreed with major news outlets worldwide to start using the term ‘climate emergency’ in its coverage of climate change,” the publication announced Monday in a tweet to its 3.9 million followers touting “the impact we hope it can have throughout the media landscape.”
“We Are Living in a Climate Emergency, and We’re Going to Say So,” the headline of a Scientific American commentary published Monday declares. Claiming that that climate change is “the biggest environmental emergency to beset the earth in millennia,” the piece announces the name change:
“Given the circumstances, Scientific American has agreed with major news outlets worldwide to start using the term ‘climate emergency’ in its coverage of climate change.”
Scientific American reports that the media organizations have signed a statement “coordinated by Covering Climate Now, a global journalism initiative with more than 400 media partners.” Signatories include:
- Scientific American,
- Columbia Journalism Review,
- The Nation,
- The Guardian,
- Noticias Telemundo,
- Al Jazeera,
- Asahi Shimbun, and
- La Repubblica