As a budding journalist, I try not to allow my opinion to affect my coverage of a news item. I enjoy exploring the climate beat – thanks to The Sweaty Penguin – and the various ways we can mitigate climate change and extreme weather events. However, it seems to me the national media does not acknowledge climate change as the major driver of extreme heat, storms and droughts as consistently as it should.

I was born in the wintery, chilly Grand Rapids, Michigan, but moved to Nashville, Tennessee when I entered grade school. Although I was living in the South, winters were surprisingly harsh. I remember taking snow days off from school due to actual blizzards. Since the local infrastructure couldn’t handle more than a half-inch of snow, trucks would be salting the roads well into the icy afternoons.

Then, the area is hit by the complete opposite in the summer. Anyone who has lived here for a couple of years can attest to the noticeable increase in temperatures starting in May. Not only is it unbearably hot and sunny, but the air is sticky and humid, adding another layer of heat-trapping insulation. This July, Nashville experienced its first triple digit reading — at 101 degrees Fahrenheit — in almost 10 years.

We all know that it is getting warmer, and it’s not stopping. However, it is doing the public a disservice not to attribute extreme heat to climate change. National TV networks such as ABC, CBS and CNN mentioned climate change in 32% of segments on global extreme heat – 20 out of 62 clips – from July 16 to 18, according to Media Matters for America, a nonprofit research center that investigates misinformation in the media. Almost all these segments were related to the European heat wave and the raging fires that resulted from drought and extreme heat overseas.

Evidence shows an indisputable link between climate change and extreme heat. Experts have told us year after year about the impact of greenhouse gases. It seems the public has become indifferent to this omnipresent crisis. Corporate news programs need to make it clear that anthropogenic, or human-caused, activity is the primary cause of heat emergencies.

Many people feel hopeless in trying to combat climate change. More than 70% of all greenhouse gas emissions globally have come from 100 companies since 1988, the birth year of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, according to the Carbon Majors Report in 2017.

I wish the media would address the activities of fossil fuel companies, and the relationship between extreme weather and climate change, in their “this summer is really hot” coverage. It’s not just that the summer is hot. People need to be aware of what is to come if we continue to ignore climate change.

For more information, see the companion “Tip of the Iceberg” podcast episode here.