Is Anyone Still Talking About Climate Change? (2026)
You have probably felt it too. The heat records keep arriving, the summers sit heavier than they used to, and yet the subject itself has gone quiet. Climate change is no longer the front-page fixture it was a. . .
You have probably felt it too. The heat records keep arriving, the summers sit heavier than they used to, and yet the subject itself has gone quiet. Climate change is no longer the front-page fixture it was a few years ago. It comes up less at dinner, less in the group chat, less in the corridor at work. If you have caught yourself wondering whether anyone is still talking about it, you are not imagining the silence. That quiet is not a sign the problem shrank. It is a sign the conversation did. Worry is still high. Coverage is not. And when we stop hearing about something, we slowly stop raising it ourselves, even while we still care. This is the honest paradox at the centre of the climate story right now, and it is worth understanding before you decide it has all blown over. ForestNation is a tree gifting company that has helped more than 500 businesses plant nearly 2 million trees in Tanzania, and we built this guide because we believe the conversation is worth reopening, one real tree at a time. If you want a small, personal way in today, you cangenerate your message free at giftstory. aiand plant a tree in someone’s name. Key Takeaways2026 is running hot. Carbon Brief’s mid-year best estimate gives it a 62% chance of finishing as the second-warmest year on record, behind 2024 and 2023. July 2026 tied 2024 as the warmest July on record for NOAA and ranked joint-second-warmest for Copernicus, while the ocean set a clear new July high of 20. 96C. Media coverage of climate change fell 14% in 2025, the fourth straight year of decline and 38% below the 2021 peak. 64% of Americans stay worried about climate change, yet how often people hear about it is the lowest it has been since 2015. The gap is not apathy, it is attention. Reopening the conversation starts with making the subject personal and visible again. Is anyone still talking about climate change?Fewer people are, and the main reason is that fewer people are hearing about it. In its 2026 report, theMedia and Climate Change Observatory at the University of Colorado Boulder found that climate coverage fell 14% in 2025. TheYale Program on Climate Change Communication found that 64% of Americans remain at least somewhat worried, while exposure to the subject in the media sits at its lowest point since the survey began in 2015. So the honest answer is a paradox: concern is holding, dialogue is fading. These two things move together more than we notice. When a subject leaves the news, it quietly leaves the dinner table as well. We take our cues about what matters from what is around us, and if climate rarely surfaces, it stops feeling urgent to mention. Part of what looks like indifference is reallyclimate fatigue and why we stopped talking, and part of it is that the signal itself got quieter. If 2026 is one of the hottest years on record, why does it feel so quiet?Because the physical signal and the public signal have come apart. The planet is running hot:Carbon Brief’s mid-year projectiongives 2026 a 62% chance of finishing as the second-warmest year on record, behind 2024 and 2023. NOAA recorded July 2026 as tied with 2024 for the warmest July ever measured, andCopernicus ranked that same month joint-second-warmest, with the global ocean reaching a record 20. 96C for July. With El Nino strengthening, the heat is very real. None of that guarantees a headline. Heat like this has become the background rather than the story, the weather we live inside instead of the news we react to. If you want to see how the numbers actually stack up, the spoke onwhether 2026 is really the hottest year on recordwalks through what the agencies measured and how they differ. Why did climate change fall out of the news?Mostly supply, not demand. TheReuters Institute’s Climate Change and News Audiences Report 2025found that the share of people who come across climate news at least weekly fell from 55% in 2023 to 47% in 2025, a decline the authors attribute partly to reduced supply, especially on television. Newsrooms shrank, budgets tightened, and other stories crowded in, so coverage dropped for a fourth straight year and now sits38% below its 2021 peak. Attention is finite, and it has been pulled elsewhere. AnIpsos survey commissioned by FSC in 2025found war and conflict topping public worries at 52%, with climate change trailing at 31%. The concern has not vanished, it has been outranked. For the full picture of how the coverage collapsed, seewhy climate change fell out of the news. What is climate fatigue, and is it why we stopped talking?Climate fatigue is the slow tuning-out that sets in when a subject feels enormous, constant, and beyond any one person’s control. It is not that people stopped caring, since 64% still say they are worried. It is that worry with nowhere to go becomes something we quietly avoid, because sitting in helplessness is exhausting. Years of coverage framed around catastrophe left many readers numb rather than moved. The way back is not more alarm. It is a smaller, human handle on a subject that had grown too big to hold. We look at that shift in detail in the spoke onhow climate fatigue took hold. Are Earth Day, Earth Hour and the green days still landing?They are still happening and still large, though their shape is changing rather than rising or falling cleanly. WWF reported thatEarth Hour 2025 gathered close to 3 million hoursof time given through its app, roughly double the1. 4 million reported for 2024, while the number of participating countries fell from more than 180 to 118. Those are organiser-reported figures, so read them as reach the organisers logged, not a clean measure of global attention. The calendar moments continue too. Earth Day 2026 ran under the theme Our Power, Our Planet, and World Environment Day 2026 was hosted by Azerbaijan in Baku with a focus on climate action. The honest read is a mixed one, some measures up and some down, which is exactly why it deserves a closer look in the spoke onwhether Earth Day and Earth Hour still land. How do we bring climate change back into everyday conversation?You make it personal and visible again. A statistic is easy to scroll past. A real tree, planted in someone’s name and watched as it grows, is not. It turns a distant, heavy subject into a small, shared act between two people, and small shared acts are how conversations actually restart. This is the whole reason ForestNation exists. A gift is a message, a bridge between two people that says I thought of you. A Tree Gift carries that further, because the Tree Kit is the living thing they plant and the Gift Story is the digital message that travels with it, so the gift keeps speaking long after it arrives. Every tree is a contribution to verified reforestation in Tanzania, tended by real people, tracked and named, so you can follow it. For a business, tree planting can become the visible climate action a whole team stands behind, and you cansee how it works for companiesorread the FN impact methodologyto see how the field measurements are made. Imagine sending someone a tree today, and a year from now the two of you are still talking about how tall it has grown. That is the conversation coming back, not as a headline, but as something living between you. If you want to start there, you cangenerate your message free at giftstory. ai. And if you want the practical version, we gathered the openers, the framing and the small habits inbring climate change back into conversation. Research and ReferencesCarbon Brief, State of the climate: strong El Nino puts 2026 on track for second-warmest year. carbonbrief. orgNOAA NCEI, Global Climate Report for July 2026. ncei. noaa. govCopernicus Climate Change Service, Surface air temperature for July 2026. climate. copernicus. euMedia and Climate Change Observatory, University of Colorado Boulder, coverage fell 14% in 2025. colorado. eduYale Environment 360, global climate news coverage falls for a fourth straight year. e360. yale. eduReuters Institute, Climate Change and News Audiences Report 2025. reutersinstitute. politics. ox. ac. ukYale Program on Climate Change Communication, Climate Worries Rise but Dialogue Fades. environment. yale. eduFSC and Ipsos 2025 survey, climate change trails top global concerns. fsc. orgWWF Earth Hour, Earth Hour 2025 closing results (nearly 3 million hours across 118 countries and territories). latest. earthhour. orgWWF Earth Hour, Earth Hour 2024 sees millions unite around the world (over 1. 4 million hours across more than 180 countries and territories). latest. earthhour. orgFrequently Asked QuestionsIs anyone still talking about climate change in 2026?Yes, but noticeably less than a few years ago. Concern stays high, with 64% of Americans worried, while media coverage fell 14% in 2025 and everyday exposure to the subject is at its lowest since 2015. The concern is holding, the conversation is fading. Is 2026 the hottest year on record?Most likely not the hottest. Carbon Brief’s mid-year best estimate gives 2026 a 62% chance of finishing as the second-warmest year on record, behind 2024 and 2023, though July 2026 did tie 2024 as the warmest July for NOAA and the ocean set a new July heat record. Why has climate change dropped out of the news?Mainly reduced supply. The Reuters Institute found the share of people meeting climate news at least weekly fell from 55% in 2023 to 47% in 2025, and coverage has now declined for four straight years as newsrooms shrank and other stories took priority. How can I start talking about climate change again?Make it personal and small. Planting or gifting a real tree gives a heavy subject a human, visible handle that people want to follow. You can generate a message free at giftstory. ai and plant a tree in someone’s name to begin. Connection between people is precious, and so is the planet we share. Every tree planted is a small, patient act of belief that the conversation, and the care underneath it, is still worth having. Andrew PothecaryAndrew Pothecary is a pioneer in purpose-driven corporate gifting, with over 20 years of experience in the gift, eCommerce, and reforestation space. Since 2004, he has worked at the intersection of meaningful gifting and conscious consumerism, helping companies give with purpose and impact. In 2006, Andrew turned his focus to global tree planting and ecosystem restoration, launching large-scale reforestation projects and campaigns. By 2007, he was helping organizations shift from traditional promotional products to Tree Gifts that contribute to verified reforestation, reinventing client appreciation, event swag, and employee gifting with measurable impact at the core. Through ForestNation, Andrew empowers businesses to strengthen relationships while planting trees that restore biodiversity, support local communities, and contribute to verified reforestation in Tanzania. His work bridges genuine environmental contribution with brand storytelling, helping companies grow forests and deeper connections.