You have probably noticed it yourself. A year or two ago, climate change was everywhere in your feed. Now it feels quieter. The easy conclusion is that people got tired, that the world moved on, that nobody wants to hear about it anymore. It is a comfortable story because it lets everyone off the hook. It is also wrong.
The quiet is not coming from you or the people around you. Interest in climate news has held remarkably steady. What changed is the supply. Newsrooms produced less of it, and when there is less to encounter, people encounter less. That gap between what people still want and what they are being shown has a name worth understanding, because it changes what any one of us can usefully do about it. You can even start by planting a real tree in someone’s name and generate your message free at giftstory.ai. This piece explains the climate news supply gap, the numbers behind it, and why keeping the story visible now matters more, not less.
Key Takeaways
- Public interest in climate news has barely moved. Across eight countries, roughly three-quarters or more say they are interested, and that has changed little in four years.
- What fell was supply. Weekly climate-news use dropped from a peak of 55% in 2023 to 47% in 2025 as coverage thinned, especially on television.
- Overall media coverage of climate change fell 14% in 2025 compared with 2024, measured across 131 outlets in 59 countries.
- In the United States, public exposure to climate change in the media is at its lowest point since measurement began in 2015, even though 72% think it is happening.
- The quiet is a supply problem, not a demand collapse, which means the small acts that keep the story visible are worth more than ever.
Did people actually stop caring about climate change?
No. The evidence points the other way. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, in its Climate Change and News Audiences Report 2025, found that across the eight countries it surveyed, roughly three-quarters or more of people say they are somewhat, very or extremely interested in climate information, and those levels have changed little over the past four years. Yale tells a similar story on the attitudes side. The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication reports that 72% of Americans think climate change is happening and 64% are at least somewhat worried about it.
So the concern is still there. The worry is still there. The interest is still there. What people are not getting is the news itself. Hold those two facts next to each other and you have described the whole problem: steady demand, shrinking supply.
What is the climate news supply gap?
The climate news supply gap is the widening distance between how much climate coverage the public would engage with and how much the media actually produces. It is a supply-side decline, not a fading of public interest.
The Reuters Institute found that in 2025, 47% of respondents said they saw, read or heard news about climate change in the past week, down from a peak of 55% in 2023. The researchers are direct about the cause. If the supply of climate news has decreased, especially on television, people are naturally less likely to encounter it. Television, still the single most used source, is the only one to have declined since 2022, from 31% to 25%.
The production data confirms it. The Media and Climate Change Observatory at CU Boulder found that media coverage of climate change fell 14% in 2025 compared with 2024, tracked across 131 news outlets in 59 countries. And the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication reports that the extent to which Americans hear about climate change in the media has reached its lowest point since the survey began in 2015. Three independent measures, one direction. The story is being told less.
Why does a supply gap matter more than a demand collapse?
Because the two problems have opposite solutions. If people had stopped caring, there would be little any individual could do, and shouting louder would only annoy them. But that is not what happened. The audience is still here and still willing. The shortage is in what reaches them.
That flips the responsibility in a hopeful way. When supply is the constraint, every source of visibility counts, including small ones. A supply gap is filled not only by big newsrooms but by anyone who keeps the subject present in ordinary life, in a conversation, a post, a gift, a moment that makes someone think about it again. The quiet is not proof that the fight is lost. It is a gap, and a gap can be filled.
If you want the fuller version of how climate slipped down the agenda, we cover it in why climate change fell out of the news, and the wider question sits at the heart of our cluster on whether anyone is still talking about climate change.
What can one person or brand actually do about it?
You cannot commission a television series or reverse a newsroom budget. But you can control a small piece of supply yourself, and you can make it personal, which is what makes people pay attention in the first place.
This is where a tree gift does quiet work. ForestNation is a corporate tree gifting company that has helped 500+ businesses plant nearly 2 million trees in Tanzania through verified reforestation. When you send a Gift Story, a real tree is planted in someone’s name in Tanzania, and the person you sent it to follows that tree through a named Forest Profile, watching where it grows and what it is doing. It is not an abstract statistic. It is one tree, in one place, with one person’s name on it, and it keeps the subject present every time they check on it.
That is a small piece of the story, kept visible, by you. It is a contribution to verified reforestation, tracked and named, never a way to cancel out anyone’s footprint. The point is not to offset. The point is to keep the conversation alive in a form a real person actually wants to receive. You can see how the trees are measured and verified in our FN impact methodology.
Imagine the person you send it to opening a message from you, finding a tree planted in their name in Tanzania, and following it as it grows, thinking about the wider story each time they look. That is one more thread in the supply, and it came from you.
You can generate your message free at giftstory.ai and plant the first tree in someone’s name today.
Keeping a story alive is a small, patient act, and so is planting a tree. Both are ways of saying the same thing: this still matters.
Research and References
- Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Climate Change and News Audiences Report 2025: analysis of news use and attitudes in eight countries. Weekly climate-news use fell from 55% (2023) to 47% (2025) while interest held steady. reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk
- Media and Climate Change Observatory (MeCCO), University of Colorado Boulder. Climate change media coverage fell 14% in 2025 across 131 outlets in 59 countries. colorado.edu
- Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Public exposure to climate change in the media at its lowest since 2015; 72% think it is happening, 64% worried. environment.yale.edu
- ForestNation impact methodology and verified reforestation in Tanzania. read the FN impact methodology
Frequently Asked Questions
Has public interest in climate change really stayed steady?
Yes. The Reuters Institute found that across eight countries, roughly three-quarters or more of people say they are interested in climate information, and that has changed little over four years. Yale found 72% of Americans think climate change is happening. Interest held while coverage shrank.
How much did climate news coverage fall?
The Media and Climate Change Observatory at CU Boulder measured a 14% fall in media coverage of climate change in 2025 compared with 2024, across 131 outlets in 59 countries. Weekly climate-news use in the Reuters Institute survey dropped from 55% in 2023 to 47% in 2025.
Why is it called a supply gap and not a loss of interest?
Because the surveys show interest and concern staying broadly flat while the amount of coverage produced fell, especially on television. When there is less climate news to see, people see less of it. The constraint is on the supply side, not the demand side.
How does planting a tree help keep the story visible?
A tree gift makes the subject personal and present. When you send a Gift Story, a real tree is planted in someone’s name in Tanzania and they follow it through a named Forest Profile. It is a small, controllable piece of visibility that keeps climate on someone’s mind in a form they are glad to receive.
