Hot Takes

Every Journalist's Guide to Covering Climate Change

Sadie Babits

$76.99

Paperback

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English

Island Press
29 August 2025

Media studies; Press & journalism; Global warming

It’s Monday morning and your editor assigns you a story about a housing project where several residents have been hospitalized because of heat stroke. Is this a climate story? Is it a climate justice story? No one would have thought so twenty years ago. In fact, when many of us were attending journalism school or reporting our first stories in newsrooms, those terms did not even exist. Today, it’s a whole different story.

Whether you cover the environment, healthcare, economics, politics, sports, or any other beat, the fact is, you need to understand climate change to do your job. Because climate affects every human (and animal, and plant) on Earth, that means it affects all our reporting.

You may know the basics when it comes to the science of human driven climate change. But how about the major policies that determine global climate action or the growing number of legal climate related cases? Have you considered what it means to practice journalism focused on solutions—rather than offering up a puff piece? What about how to cover the vast inequities generated from human caused climate change, or how race and socioeconomics interact with climate? Are you prepared to detect and debunk misinformation and to remove bias from your stories?

Climate change is dramatically shifting so many aspects of our world, journalism included. So, whether you’re still a student or a fifty year veteran, chances are, you could use some up to date guidance on how to report on this critical and endlessly complex issue. You have come to the right place. No resource has all the answers, but Hot Takes engages the big questions that will determine how climate change is covered, and the stories we tell our audiences and ourselves.

By: Sadie Babits
Imprint: Island Press
Country of Publication: United States [Currently unable to ship to USA: see Shipping Info]
ISBN: 9781642832754
ISBN 10: 1642832758
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 29 August 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Sadie Babits is Supervising Climate Editor at NPR and previously was Professor of Practice and Sustainability Director at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Babits has also served as board president of the Society of Environmental Journalists.

Reviews for Hot Takes: Every Journalist's Guide to Covering Climate Change

""Sadie Babits has written the book that I wish I had when I started covering climate change more than a decade ago, and I know I'll be thumbing back through its pages for years to come looking for guidance on how to cover the biggest story of our lifetime.""--Michael Kodas, Senior Editor at 'Inside Climate News' and author of 'Megafire' and 'High Crimes' ""Sadie Babits is one of the best environmental journalists in the business... Sadie's chapters on solutions journalism, environmental justice, and the meaning of objectivity are crucial reading for reporters who want to be active participants in alleviating suffering through rigorous, fact-based, empathetic storytelling.""--Sammy Roth, climate columnist for the 'Los Angeles Times' ""Hot Takes is smart, clear-sighted, and on target. It should be read by anyone reporting on climate change or on the impacts of climate change, which is to say by just about any working (or aspiring) journalist.""--Elizabeth Kolbert, author of 'The Sixth Extinction, ' 'Under a White Sky, ' and 'Field Notes from a Catastrophe' ""Daunted by how to cover climate change? Don't be. With Sadie Babits as your genial and genius guide, Hot Takes will school you in the science, policy, ethics and more of climate change reporting. A perfect primer for journalists on any beat.""--Meera Subramanian, author of 'A River Runs Again' and past president of the Society of Environmental Journalists