{"id":43999,"date":"2026-08-18T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wearewater.org\/?post_type=waw_insight&p=43999"},"modified":"2026-08-18T09:04:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T07:04:41","slug":"climate-crisis-communication-crisis","status":"publish","type":"waw_insight","link":"https:\/\/www.wearewater.org\/br\/insights\/climate-crisis-communication-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate crisis. Communication crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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France, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain\u2026 The boreal summer is proving exceptional in countries that until recently were considered relatively distant from the most severe impacts of global warming. Longer droughts, more aggressive heatwaves, increasing forest fires and more frequent floods confirm the forecasts of the <\/span>latest IPCC report<\/span><\/a> (AR6), published in August 2021. Science anticipated that extreme events would intensify and shift towards latitudes where populations were not accustomed to living with them. That is exactly what has happened.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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Climate change has manifested with particular intensity in areas and population groups previously far removed from its most severe impacts. <\/span>\u00a9 pexels-ben-collins<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

Has the public stopped trusting science?<\/h2><\/div>

This year, the phenomena have repeated themselves with greater intensity, subjecting communities in central and northern Europe to an adaptive checkmate previously unimaginable.<\/span><\/p>\n

This new crisis, which once again confirms the IPCC\u2019s forecasts, has coincided with the publication of the latest scientific data, which are compelling and come from peer\u2011reviewed articles (critically evaluated by experts who are not part of the editorial team): the climate crisis is advancing at an unprecedented speed in human history. CO<\/span>\u2082<\/span> concentration reached 426 ppm in 2025, a level without precedent in 800,000 years of palaeoclimatic records. Throughout that entire period, the atmosphere never exceeded 300 ppm until the arrival of the twentieth century. The evidence is unequivocal and confirms that global warming is rapid, recent and human\u2011driven.<\/span>
\n<\/span>At the same time, this July, <\/span>Nature<\/span><\/a> published an article by <\/span>Helen Pearson<\/b>, science journalist and executive editor of the journal, posing an uncomfortable question: \u201cHas the public stopped trusting science?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The author analyses a troubling phenomenon: while the scientific evidence on global warming is stronger than ever, public attention to the climate crisis appears to be weakening. The text notes that, although the scientific community has reached an unprecedented consensus in calling more firmly for urgent action, this message does not translate into equivalent social mobilisation.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Pearson, several international indicators show that citizens recognise the problem but relegate it in favour of other threats perceived as more immediate. In surveys carried out in Europe and North America\u2014it should be noted, before last July\u2019s heatwaves\u2014the proportion of people who place the climate among their top three concerns has fallen steadily over the past three years. In France and Germany, the climate loses ground to inflation, housing and security. In the United Kingdom, the percentage of citizens who follow climate news \u201cvery closely\u201d drops significantly. In the United States, the most sensitised group\u2014the so\u2011called alarmed\u2014shrinks for the first time in a decade, while the segment that recognises the problem but does not prioritise it grows.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

The paradox in Spain as well<\/h2><\/div>

In Spain, after the alarming drought of recent years<\/a>, various surveys show a paradox very similar to that observed in other European and North American countries: intense concern about climate change decreases precisely when impacts become more visible and more frequent. The most recent data\u2014corresponding to 2025 and, it should be noted, before the climate crisis of July 2026\u2014confirm this trend.<\/span><\/p>\n

The annual stud<\/span>y <\/span><\/i>Sustainable Consumption and Certified Products<\/span><\/i><\/a> r<\/span><\/i>eveals significant figures. In 2019, two out of three people (67%) considered climate change a major problem and said they were very worried about it. In the latest measurement, this proportion stands at four out of ten (42%), a drop of 25 points in the most intense level of concern.<\/span><\/p>\n

The decline is especially abrupt among young people. The 16 to 24 age group, which in 2019 was the most sensitised, now \u2014in 2025\u2014 shows the sharpest fall:<\/span><\/p>\n