By Ashley Buschhorn

Climate change is ravaging our planet, killing crops, driving animals to extinction and, yes, killing people, yet the mainstream media’s coverage of the issue is woefully lacking.

“The state of coverage does not meet the state of emergency,” CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir told Climate360 News.

A new report shows that 85% of the world population has experienced a weather event that has been worsened by climate change. The report also showed that global warming has affected 80% of the world’s land area. When you consider these events one by one you discover the human-impact of them. Whether it is Texans freezing to death in the 2021 winter storm or refugee camps in South Sudan being swept away by flash floods, there is a toll on human life brought on by climate change, yet the reporting on the issue from the mainstream media is lacking. Big time.

There is encouraging news. Weir and his CNN counterpart Brandon Miller have begun to expand their climate teams as CNN moves to more adequately cover this ever-changing issue. The investment into people and resources will be crucial as CNN attempts to put climate change at the center of its coverage.

Climate360 News applauds CNN for investing more resources into its climate coverage but we believe there is much more to be done. We are a group of talented student journalists from across the country who are passionate about informing the world about climate change. We are determined to speak truth to power and inform citizens how entities – like the fossil fuel industry – choose profit over the planet.

We will report on national issues, but focus on how climate change impacts our local communities. Our goal is to tell multiple perspectives in our stories in order to accurately explain the various facets of climate change.

Our goal is to fill the gap when it comes to the coverage of climate change. To do that we need to hear your stories so we can fight climate change – together. One story at a time.