Climate experts using stronger language to inform public

Scientists have spent decades toning down language on climate change, but that caution is evaporating as the facts sharpen, according to a University of Reading scientist and one of the UK's best-known TV weather presenters.

Speaking on the first of a new University of Reading podcast marking the institution's centenary, Professor Andrew Charlton-Perez said he was trained as a young researcher to avoid sounding ‘sensationalist’ and to stay cautious and factual. As records are quickly broken with increasing regularity in recent years, for example with temperatures hitting 40 degrees in 2022, that approach has changed, he said.

"I think I've seen even my colleagues over the last 20 years or so really become more alarmed themselves," he said, pointing to the shift in language used in reports from bodies such as the IPCC.

"When scientists are using 'unprecedented,' 'alarming', using words like that, you know it's worse than scientists were ever thinking."

Professor Charlton-Perez appeared alongside ITV Good Morning Britain weather presenter and University of Reading alumna Laura Tobin on the first episode of Reading Ahead, a new eight-part podcast series hosted by University Chancellor Paul Lindley. The series examines how University of Reading research and expertise is shaping the biggest debates facing society.

Laura Tobin, who has spent 15 years translating weather science for a breakfast TV audience, said the challenge has always been finding the right words and the right moment.

"For me, it's breakfast time, one minute maximum," she said.

"I simplify it as much as possible, and I just give the facts. I'm not giving my opinion, I'm not telling people what to do."

That approach has evolved as audiences have changed. Tobin described how attribution science, which helps calculate whether a specific heatwave or flood could have happened without human-caused warming, has given broadcasters a new way to make an abstract subject feel immediate and personal.

She said the technique has changed how she talks to viewers, not simply listing weather records, but showing them what was once considered impossible is becoming normal in a rapidly warming world.

The episode also focuses on why some climate communication tools work better than others, with Professor Charlton-Perez describing the story of the climate stripes, the globally recognised visualisation of warming, created by University of Reading scientist Professor Ed Hawkins.

Both guests pushed back on the idea that talking honestly about climate change increases public anxiety.

"Anxiety is a rational response," Professor Charlton-Perez said.

"But I don't think you address that anxiety by not talking about the facts. You have to talk about where we are and where we're going. The anxiety comes if you don't have agency, if you can't make a change.”

Reading Ahead episode one, ‘Climate Change’ is available now on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and other podcast platforms.