Turning climate risk research into local health stories
- Moderator: Katie Burke, freelance science journalist
- Jen Brady, Senior data analyst, Climate Central
- Abbie Veitch, Communications and media specialist, Climate Central
At Health Journalism 2026, a session focused on producing effective data-driven climate stories examined how recent climate shifts pose heightened health risks for communities across the globe
Through the session, speakers offered advice on how to pair local health vulnerabilities with solutions-oriented reporting that empowers and motivates news audiences, increases public awareness, bridges political divides, and helps protect the communities served by news organizations
“Research shows that health journalists are missing the biggest one of the biggest stories of our time, which is the human health effects of climate change,” said Katie Burke, a freelance science journalist
Burke and speakers from Climate Central, a nonprofit focused on researching and reporting on climate change, explained that environmental challenges such as rising temperatures, increased extreme weather events, and rising sea levels all pose potentially harmful health risks to communities
These changes are most often exhibited through worsened water quality, increased allergens and air pollution, higher probability of heat-related illness and death and forced migration
Framing climate change as a health issue, they said, is significantly more engaging than traditional environmental or economic framing
Despite the extensive disruption that climate shifts pose, often, reporting on the intersection of climate and health lacks nuance and clear framing, Jen Brady, a senior data analyst at Climate Central, told session attendees.
When reporting solely leans into doom and gloom rather than offering readers and government officials solutions or ideas on how to resolve or mitigate harm, a reporter’s capacity to affect change and seek accountability is diminished
During the session, Burke shared insights from her reporting on Southwest Virginians’ health in a changing climate, highlighting her investigative work on extreme heat, tick-borne diseases and flash floods in the region
Burke used reice 40 Project, to assess rising energy costs in Virginia for reporting on energy scarcity and extreme heat throughout the region. Her reporting explored how a state energy assistance program sought to serve impoverished people over 60 who were unable to afford cooling systems.
Her reporting also delved into data from the Virginia Department of Health to monitor spikes in Lyme disease across areas with increasing temperatures, and produced stories about neighborhoods and towns wiped out by extreme flooding, offering a glimpse into climate resilience renditions sooner
Speakers shared a collection of data tools, maps and screening re such as heat trends, community vulnerability data, hospital flood risk and infrastructure resilience in addition to state climate and health indicators
Experts noted that data is not available for every city or region, and, often, data collection lags and recognition of impacts can be slow. But, in many cases, strong stories come from areas where undercounting is common
Though attribution science cannot verify that a weather event was caused by climate change, data can provide clarity for determining the intensity and severity of a weather event and the likelihood that it could happen again
Climate Central offered the following questions for reporters to ask themselves while producing a story pitch about climate impacts
- Is the data source established and credible?
- Are the data local or geographically specific?
- What are the other factors that impact the outcome?
- Do I have enough data to detect a “trend” or is this a case study?
- Are there gaps in the data?
Tamia Fowlkes is a Public Investigator for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and a Wisconsin Health Journalism Fellow for AHCJ
