C-Change Conversations helps people across the political spectrum understand why they should care about climate change, how it impacts them personally, and why there’s urgency to address it. We created Curated Climate News to share monthly U.S. and international headlines in a nonpartisan, accessible framework that helps people understand the risks we face – and the opportunities being created – as our global temperatures rise.
The newsletter offers an overview of the month, breaking news into categories of hope and concern. We include a range of climate-related topics – weather, clean technology, economy, insurance, security, health, environment – and explain the relevance of those particular news events to our world, our country and our readership. We take a wide view of the news, curating headlines from as many sources as possible, to ensure that our take remains apolitical, interesting, and timely.
In writing the newsletter, we pay particular attention to our tone, striving to speak to the “middle” – neither left nor right – so that we build consensus rather than create division. Our goal for Curated Climate News is that readers take away a more thorough understanding that global warming has very personal consequences, and that we all – conservative, liberal, and everyone in between – need to act to mitigate the risks.
When we began educating on climate change in 2014, there was a distinct lack of media coverage on the topic. It was considered a "ratings killer" by many. Opinions were loud, facts were few, and mainstream media tiptoed around the issue – when they covered it at all. Most people did not have a real sense of the consequences global warming would have on their safety, finances, health, and overall security. Even our inner circle – our friends, our families – seemed to not understand that climate change was more than a couple of hot summers, a long drought, a big flood. And the “middle” population, in particular, had little opportunity to hear climate change information that wasn’t slanted by either liberal or conservative voices.
We wanted to foster understanding of the risks while remaining even-handed and not overly alarmist. We wanted to reach people who knew little about climate change, or who did not understand the science and the risks, or who needed an honest broker of news to cut through the partisan rhetoric that surrounded the issue. We wanted to push past the politicization and misinformation that turns people off from learning about climate change and deters them from making the issue a top priority at the voting booth.
Curated Climate News launched in June 2019. We were an early voice, and one of the few organizations solely focusing on reaching that middle population. We designed the newsletter to be a “quick read” that keeps climate news in front of our audience every month. By just reading the newsletter itself, subscribers stay up to date, gleaning analysis and context of climate-driven events and trends. If they’d like to dive deeper, they can do so by clicking on the links we provide to full articles, reports, and videos. We offer a clear structure, breaking the news into “Hope” and “Concern” to underscore our apolitical positioning.
While many climate e-newsletters have since joined the field, we remain unique in our approach. Curated Climate News doesn’t point partisan fingers. Instead, we baste the month’s news with our special sauce – our approachable, “all-are-welcome-here” voice that allows readers to see how climate change will impact them, no matter what their personal leanings may be. We educate and communicate, rather than berate and accuse. And we look at the things that are going right, as well as the challenges, because we know we can only build consensus for climate action if people feel their efforts matter.
Curated Climate News has a readership of 2,550 subscribers, in addition to those who view the newsletter via our website, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Due to the newsletter’s growing success, our C-Change Athens (GA) chapter asked us to create a custom version that includes state and local news; that edition is emailed to an additional 800 subscribers. Our open rate is consistently above 50%, yet we measure our true effectiveness from the steady influx of positive responses from readers who report that Curated Climate News helps them understand how climate change impacts them and the importance of taking climate action, both personal and societal.
