Climate coverage dips—again

Media coverage of climate change has continued to slip worldwide for the third straight year despite dramatic individual weather events.

While Hurricane Sandy, melting Arctic ice and widespread drought received ample coverage, the number of published stories about climate change declined by 2.4 percent between 2011 and 2012, according to a media database maintained by nonprofit journalism site The Daily Climate. Coverage peaked in 2009, when approximately 11,000 reporters and commentators filed 32,400 articles on climate change.

The New York Times published the most stories on climate change and had the most significant increase in coverage among the five largest American newspapers. “Climate change is one of the few subjects so important that we need be oblivious to cycles and just cover it as hard as we can all the time,” said Glenn Kramon, assistant managing editor of the Times.