Never before has so little sea ice been measured in the Arctic, but climate scientists are struggling to get the word out in the media – NRK

Thomas Lavergne’s research was published yesterday at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET).

Their daily observations of Arctic sea ice show that never before has so little ice been measured in forty years.

But hardly any Norwegian media has cared so far.

Only two media companies have called the climate researcher, listed as the contact person for the article: NRK Nordland and Nettavisen.

At the same time, Lavergne’s tweet about the same news has gone viral: it was shared more than three thousand times and received 6,200 likes.

– I’m a little surprised that it has become so popular. This is the first time that I have received so much attention on Twitter and good contact with the audience. It was refreshing!

It often gets the attention of other researchers, but its goal is to get the message across to everyone.

And it’s not that simple when only two journalists call.

4 million square meters less ice

What researcher Lavergne tried to convey was that 2020 is one of the years with the least sea ice in the Arctic.

In the 40 years that MET has collected this data from satellites, never has so little sea ice been measured as in October.

Compared to the early 1980s, it is now 4 million square kilometers less ice.

It is the area of ​​Norway ten times.

The researcher experiences that interest in something that is so far away can be difficult for people to identify.

– The first is that the Arctic Ocean is very far away. Most people are not directly connected to what is happening there. But if there is a temperature log where they live, we will listen to it.

It also says that when sea ice melts, the sea level does not rise.

But it is an indicator of what is happening.

183 weather problems on average every day

It is not the media not write about the weather.

A search of Retriever, which monitors and analyzes the media, shows that last year there were almost 67,000 cases with the word weather in the Norwegian media. On average, there are more than 183 stories with the word weather every day.

This year there have been more than 42,000 so far, so the numbers have increased in the last 13 years.

– I experience that in general there is more media attention on the climate in general. It’s probably also about us, researchers and institutes, communicating research better, Lavergne believes.

But he still believes that the Norwegian media does not write enough on the subject.

– I think it is difficult to get the attention of the media. I think people are interested in reading about climate change. And they should be, they mean a lot to everyone’s future.

Media researcher: – The climate crisis does not have adequate news frequency

– I think it is a lot about the initiative of journalists. Many people think that there are so many records all the time, so you cannot keep the interest of the news, says Andreas Ytterstad.

Research climate journalism at OsloMet.

In general, he thinks there has been a lot of pressure in the media on the weather. But then the pandemic came and then the focus changed.

– But this fall it’s getting a little better again. But, and this is an old problem: the slow and progressive climate crisis does not have the appropriate frequency for the day of the news.

At the same time, you see a new trend that you think is good:

– More and more people do not see the weather as a single issue. But they relate the consequences of climate change to everyday life and the rest of society. Thus, weather problems are created that do not look like weather problems at first glance.

They can, for example, be about finances.

– I think several journalists have learned to put the climate in the background. They have gone from a cliche news image with the polar bear on polar ice to doing things closer to people’s everyday lives. It doesn’t just happen in the Arctic, it affects us all.

But this is not only good.

– Because if you do the climate crisis every day, you miss the informational value. Like this one on sea ice in the Arctic!

Records are online

Before the pandemic hit, the weather was the most important issue for Norwegian voters.

Despite the interest, it may be difficult to disseminate the research.

– Unfortunately, we have had records for several months in a row. 2020 doesn’t really stand out, because the trend just continues, Lavergne says.

For the researcher, it seems that the Norwegian media hardly see the informational value in these figures anymore.

Ytterstad believes journalists must strike a balance between treating the weather as a sensational substance, while doing it on a daily basis.

– It is an almost impossible balance, but still possible. I believe that both the number of cases must increase, but the quality must also increase. We need to know more about which cases they affect, you think.