Climate news is written in a language most people can’t understand

In the summer of 2023, more than 19,000 people were forced to evacuate due to wildfires that ravaged Yellowknife, the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories. Emergency alerts were issued in French and English, but not in the nine Indigenous languages ​​recognized as official languages ​​in the territory, forcing some Indigenous families to rely on friends, radio broadcasts and social media for crucial information.

A new white paper says the lack of translation of disaster warnings is emblematic of a much larger problem: information about climate change, from emergency warnings to scientific research, is overwhelmingly produced only in English. The study, published by Climate Cardinals, a youth-led climate advocacy organization focused on language access, found that 80 percent of scientific articles are published in English, which is spoken by only 18 percent of the world’s population. Researchers argue that most of the world is being excluded from the information needed to understand how climate change is reshaping the planet, including people in positions of power.

“Language is not just about inclusion, but I think it really determines what counts as climate reality,” said Jackie Vandermel, co-director of research at Climate Cardinals. “Language is not only about who receives information, but also what is allowed to exist in climate governance.”

The report places particular emphasis on the need for translations into Indigenous languages, including in emergency situations like those in Yellowknife. Indigenous languages, the researchers note, are increasingly threatened not only by colonialism but also by climate change itself. Forced migration can sever ties to ancestral lands, making it more difficult to teach languages ​​to new generations. At the same time, indigenous languages ​​incorporate a detailed understanding of local ecosystems and weather that is not captured elsewhere. Indigenous peoples are also disproportionately exposed to climate impacts, such as melting Arctic ice and Pacific typhoons. This could mean that indigenous peoples will face increased climate risks and have less access to relevant information while struggling to preserve languages ​​that could be key to combating climate change.

“Indigenous observations are the first climate signals, but science tends to flow where Indigenous knowledge is extracted, and scientific findings are not returned to them in an accessible form,” said Jackie Vandermel, co-director of research at Climate Cardinals.

This has implications beyond affected communities, as it shapes the policy decisions that are made. News organizations, Vandermel added, can play an important role. “By choosing which voices are heard, in which languages ​​and in which formats, journalism can reproduce existing gaps or help make indigenous and multilingual climate realities readable to the systems that govern response and financing.

The report calls for an urgent expansion of climate information in languages ​​other than English and recommends the creation of a global climate language access fund that would support multilingual dissemination of climate information. Such a fund could finance the translation of scientific research, government reports, international negotiations and extreme weather warnings. Climate Cardinals researchers said that to their knowledge, the United Nations has never considered creating such a fund, although some U.N. agencies have begun exploring translation options using machine learning.

But financing could be difficult in the current geopolitical climate. Governments have systematically failed to meet financial commitments, such as climate reparations. At last fall’s global climate conference in Brazil, known as COP30, negotiators agreed to increase funding for climate adaptation measures, such as building sea walls to guard against rising seas, but left the final figures vague. Even the most ambitious estimates fall well short of the $400 billion annually needed to fight climate change. In the United States, the Trump administration has cut funding for domestic and international climate initiatives and reduced funding for non-English weather warnings, despite research showing that such cuts can be deadly.

But a climate language access fund remains a worthy goal, said Laura Martin, an associate professor of environmental studies at Williams College.

“The recruitment of translators, multilingual educators and local journalists should be integrated into political and financial structures,” she said. “Language is a climate justice issue. »