From melting glaciers and rising seas to a yearly cycle of floods, droughts and heatwaves, climate change is one of the defining stories of our time. Yet it remains strikingly underreported in Indian newsrooms. And when it is covered, the journalism often lacks depth, context and continuity. 

This was the central theme of the session “Why the media needs to talk about climate change”, powered by the Embassy of Switzerland in India, at The Media Rumble 2025 held in Bengaluru on October 3 and 4. 

Moderated by The News Minute Kerala bureau chief Haritha John, the panel featured The Hindu deputy editor Jacob Koshy, The Locavore projects editor Mukta Patil, Mongabay India senior editor Shailesh Shrivastava, and AP climate reporter Sibi Arasu. 

Haritha opened with the most basic question: why should newsrooms make climate reporting a priority? For Jacob Koshy, the gap begins at home. Most mainstream TV channels, he pointed out, simply don’t employ full-time climate or environment reporters, and that void shapes public understanding. “We do not have a nuanced understanding of the impact of climate change because we do not have people covering it full time,” he said.

On how coverage has evolved, Sibi Arasu noted that climate, health and environment stories have grown more visible since the Paris Agreement and again during the pandemic. But visibility, he said, hasn’t translated into urgency. “It’s been a lot of talk and not so much action,” he said, adding that global reductions in greenhouse gases remain far too slow.

The conversation then shifted to the human cost. Haritha pointed out that a large share of internal migration in India is climate-driven, yet journalism seldom connects displacement to human rights. Shrivastava argued that coverage often skims the surface: reporters tend to focus only on livelihoods, overlooking the cascading effects on ecology, agriculture and local economies. “Right now, only livelihood is being looked at,” he said.

Haritha added that the most climate-vulnerable groups often don’t realise climate change is the root cause of their displacement, a lack of awareness that could deepen inequalities as migration accelerates.

Mukta Patil reminded the audience that climate change is no longer a vulnerable-communities-only story. Flooding, air pollution and rising seas affect upper-middle-class and elite neighbourhoods too. “It is coming home for everybody,” she said, pointing to the rapid transformation of Mumbai’s coastline.

One idea echoed throughout the session: climate journalism needs sustained focus. Newsrooms must move beyond covering extreme events and start interrogating the structural causes, from policy failures to corporate activity. The session closed with a clear message: unless climate reporting becomes consistent, rigorous and central to newsroom priorities, the media will continue to miss the true scale of the crisis unfolding around us.

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