Twenty-five to thirty years ago, scientific studies, data, reports, and information about climate change were like rain in the Northeast. It happened regularly, but not daily, and was incredibly useful, it came at manageable amounts, and it was about global averages and changes on continental and decadal scales. Now, like extreme weather, it comes everywhere all at once in large quantities, with different quality levels, and at scales from the ultra-local to the global. 

This talk will look at how media – and of course, there is no one big media, but so many different types – try to make sense of the deluge, what gets missed, what gets emphasized, and why and how embargoes and briefings help. And how the issue of what’s new and what’s not plays a critical role. 

As an example, we will look at one day’s worth of major climate reports in the run-up to COP28 in Dubai: Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023. On that day, the U.S. government issued the National Climate Assessment, including more than 2,200 pages, 37 chapters, an interactive atlas, five podcasts, a poem from the U.S. poet laureate, and remarks from President Biden. At the very same time – 5 a.m. – the Bezos Earth Fund, World Resources Institute, and Climate Action Tracker released their annual state of climate action report on 42 different climate action indicators. And 13 hours later, the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet issued its 8th annual countdown report on health, climate, and more. We will look at all three and discuss how to cover with students who are given access to the reports and embargoed briefing transcripts. 

Seth Borenstein is a Washington-based national science writer for The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. At the AP since 2006, his primary beat is climate change. He has covered disasters, hurricanes, the environment, astronomy, physics, and the space program for decades. He is the winner of numerous journalism awards, including the National Journalism Award for environment reporting in 2007 from the Scripps Foundation and the Outstanding Beat Reporting award from the Society of Environmental Journalists in 2008 and 2004. He was part of an AP Gulf of Mexico oil spill reporting team that won the 2010 George Polk Award for Environment Reporting and a special merit award as part of the 2011 Grantham environment reporting prizes. He was part of a team of finalists for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Columbia space shuttle disaster. 

Borenstein has been a reporter since 1983 and has covered the environment, hurricanes, and sciences since 1989. A Washington-based reporter since 1998, Borenstein covered science, environment, and air disasters at Knight Ridder Newspapers' Washington Bureau. He was a space reporter for the Orlando Sentinel and a specialty writer for the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. He is the co-author of three out-of-print books: ANDREW! Savagery from the Sea (1992), Hurricane Survival Guide (1993), and Dancing Honeybees (1994). Borenstein teaches journalism at New York University’s Washington, D.C., campus. He has flown in zero gravity and once tried out for the then-Florida Marlins baseball team, unsuccessfully.

Upcoming in the speaker series:

• Jeffrey Morris (Wednesday, March 6, noon)
• Mustafa Santiago Ali (Wednesday, April 24, 10:30am) 

Join Zoom Meeting: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/92075070493?pwd=dFQyUittYkpVYXJQT2N0MW1kREpUQT09 

Meeting ID: 920 7507 0493

Passcode: 878270

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