Learned societies need to ‘step up’ climate communication, say MPs

The government, the media and the learned societies in the UK are all failing to communicate with the public about climate change, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has warned.

The comment was made in its report Communicating Climate Science, published on 2 April. The report says that the “government and other trusted bodies”, such as learned societies, are “failing to make effective use of internet or social media to engage with the public and provide accurate information about climate change".

The report also strongly criticised the BBC for giving disproportionate airtime to minority views on the subject. MPs found that “false balance”, the practice of covering two opposing viewpoints equally, was giving the public the impression that climate change science is more widely disputed.