Out of 139 segments in our study, 22, or 16%, mentioned climate activism. Most of the segments were about the climate strikes and Greta Thunberg. Seven of them focused on the September 20 climate strike, while only one, on NBC Nightly News, discussed the March 15 climate strike. Six segments focused specifically on Greta Thunberg; three of them detailed her speech to the U.N. in October, two mentioned she was named Time’s Person of the Year, and she was interviewed in one segment on CBS Evening News on August 12.

Greta Thunberg was a media sensation in 2019. While it’s appropriate that network news segments highlighted her efforts, these shows generally failed to mention other activists doing important work. Only two other climate activists were actually named in network news shows in 2019: a student named Alex Roth, mentioned on CBS Evening News on September 20, and another student, Alexandria Villasenor, mentioned on NBC Nightly News on March 15. The youth climate movement is diverse, and the media need to do a better job of showing that diversity in their coverage.

Two segments, both on Sunday shows, featured former Secretary of State John Kerry discussing his new activist group World War Zero. World War Zero is only in its initial stages and was planning to start holding town meetings sometime in 2020. In contrast, there was only one segment each on actions organized by the Sunrise Movement, which has played a huge role in getting climate change to the forefront of the national agenda, and the Extinction Rebellion, whose protests shut down London in May. However, neither of the groups were identified by name.

Climate change mentions in extreme weather segments were a mixed bag

Extreme weather events were a threat to humans and ecosystems globally in 2019, and the fingerprints of climate change were all over them. In March, some of the worst flooding in recorded history hit the U.S. Midwest, while Cyclone Idai in Mozambique was an extremely intense storm that ended up being one of the worst weather-related disasters ever in the Southern Hemisphere. Heat waves and extreme heat affected much of Europe and Greenland this past summer, and Alaska had its hottest year in recorded history. In September, Hurricane Dorian broke intensity records and caused massive damage in the Bahamas. Drought and hot temperatures helped fuel dangerous and deadly wildfires in Australia, while wildfires in the Amazon led to concern that deforestation could lead to a “tipping point” after which the forest can’t recover and would worsen climate change.

After studying events like these, climate scientists have a better understanding of how climate change affects certain types of extreme weather.

Despite collectively airing hundreds of segments covering various extreme weather events in 2019, the nightly and Sunday news shows on the corporate broadcast networks aired only 42 segments that connected them to climate change.

When networks did connect extreme weather events to climate change, it was mostly when reporting on extreme heat. The networks aired 16 segments that mentioned climate change when discussing extreme heat. The majority of extreme heat segments were about the heat waves in both the continental U.S. and the Arctic region and Alaska.

The networks mentioned climate change seven times when reporting on wildfires in the Arctic, Australia, and California.

Climate change was mentioned nine times during segments about the destructive Amazon wildfires in August. The atmosphere above the Amazon rainforest has become increasingly dry over the past two decades, and while NASA states that half of that increase is due to climate change, the other half is due to ongoing human activity -- most importantly controlled burning of the forest for agricultural and grazing purposes. Deforestation in the Amazon recently surged to its highest point in a decade, and the fear is that the Amazon is losing valuable trees that help store carbon dioxide, and the burning is helping release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Mentions of climate change in these nine Amazon segments were brief, but they were generally clear in explaining the climate issue with the Amazon fires. On the August 21 episode of NBC Nightly News, climate scientist Michael Mann discussed the fires and said, “The impact is devastating because it’s destroying unique, irreplaceable ecosystems and it’s worsening climate change at the same time.” CBS correspondent Ben Tracy stated the problem clearly as well on the August 24 episode of CBS Evening News, noting, “The Amazon is vital to the fight against climate change, absorbing heat-trapping carbon dioxide. But the more it burns, the more CO2 it puts in the atmosphere.”

The fact that the Amazon fires could accelerate climate change was also mentioned in the August 21 episode of ABC’s World News Tonight, but this episode also repeated a common misunderstanding about the Amazon. ABC correspondent James Longman stated, “The Amazon rainforest produces 20% of the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere.” Though this claim is inaccurate and is based on a misunderstanding, either this talking point or the misleading claim calling the Amazon the “Lungs of the Earth” popped up in six of the network news’ Amazon wildfire segments.

There were five segments each that mentioned climate change in reporting on flooding or drought. Four of the climate mentions for flooding came while the networks reported on the “apocalyptic” Venice flooding. Two climate mentions within drought reporting came in the context of how climate-fueled drought is affecting the wine industries in both California and Italy, while one mention, on the October 2 episode of CBS Evening News, connected climate change to both drought and extreme heat across the southern U.S.

Just one segment -- on the September 15 episode of NBC’s Meet the Press -- mentioned climate change in relation to Hurricane Dorian. Corporate broadcast TV news shows have consistently been terrible at linking climate change to hurricanes. Hurricane Dorian was an immensely powerful storm that gained much of its strength from above-average water temperatures. Scientists are becoming increasingly confident in the links between more dangerous hurricanes and climate change, but network news is failing to point out this connection to its viewers.

These numbers are still an increase over the previous two years. In 2018, the shows aired only nine segments that connect climate change to specific extreme weather events, while in 2017, they aired only six, even though both years had record extreme weather events.

The broadcast networks aired 14 segments that mentioned climate change and extreme weather generally, all as a passing mention. For example, on the April 14 episode of NBC’s Meet the Press, Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA), who had just announced his candidacy for the presidency, said climate change was his top priority, stating, “I was just in Hamburg, Iowa, a little town that's been there since 1858 -- never been flooded before. Now it's been underwater. I was in Seminole Springs and saw a community burned down in California. I was in Miami Beach when I saw the roads have to be built up. People are now getting this.”

In 2018, the networks aired 11 general mentions of climate change and extreme weather, mostly in the context of the major reports by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and National Climate Assessment.

These trends show that extreme weather is often used as an example that climate change is happening but mentions of climate within this context are often superficial. When it comes to reporting on specific extreme weather events, climate change mentions come in a small minority of segments, and when the mentions do occur, they are typically brief.

The prominence of climate in the Democratic race for president drove Sunday show climate coverage, but it was almost completely shut out of broadcast news coverage

The 2016 presidential race all but ignored climate change. In stark contrast, the climate crisis has emerged as both a key voter issue and a top priority for candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Every candidate who entered the Democratic field in 2019 did so with a strong platform on climate -- many endorsing the Green New Deal -- and a pledge to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. Jay Inslee, who has since bowed out of the race, even ran as a climate candidate, marking the first time ever that climate has featured so prominently in a presidential race.

The prioritization of climate change among candidates, mirrored by the high rank Democratic voters have assigned the issue, has helped elevate climate in the media. Among broadcast networks’ Sunday news shows, 17 out of 23 segments mentioning climate (74%) focused on climate as an election issue or the Green New Deal as a key policy position for candidates. But only three out of 116 segments (3%) of broadcast nightly news coverage referred to the role of climate in the elections or spoke to candidates about their plans to address the crisis. ABC’s nightly program made no reference to the role of climate in the elections. NBC had two mentions, while CBS had one mention.

On March 1, CBS Evening News announced Jay Inslee's entry to the 2020 presidential race, noting, “His central campaign issue will be climate change.”

On March 17, NBC Nightly News covered candidates stumping in Iowa and featured a clip of Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) telling a crowd of supporters, “Day one as your president, I will sign us back into the international climate change agreement.”

On June 16, NBC Nightly News interviewed Jay Inslee on the singular issue driving his White House bid. Inslee stated, “My big idea is that America needs to defeat the climate crisis.”

ABC’s weekend program This Week with George Stephanopoulos mentioned climate in the context of the election in four of five total climate segments including two interviews with candidates Jay Inslee and Tom Steyer. Half of CBS’ Face the Nation climate segments, three of six, discussed the election. An interview with Inslee accounted for one of the segments. All of Fox News Sunday’s climate segments were in the context of the election including two interviews with Democratic nominee hopefuls Pete Buttigieg and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock. Six out of the eight segments on NBC’s Meet the Press that mentioned climate were in the context of the election including interviews with candidates Inslee and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as well as an interview with Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez.