The media is failing on climate change – here's how they can do better ahead of 2020

We spoke to climate change experts for advice on how news outlets can cover the environment in ways that make voters listen

America elected Donald Trump at the end of the hottest year ever recorded, without debate moderators asking him a single question about global warming.

But after three years of record temperatures, devastating wildfires and some of the most destructive hurricanes in US history, the media is facing new pressure - often from the candidates themselves - to give the subject more prominence during the 2020 election.

Yesterday, MSNBC devoted more than five minutes to Beto O'Rourke's rollout of a $5tn climate plan, calling climate a "kitchen table issue" for 2020. Jay Inslee, the Washington governor who is seeking to make climate change the central thrust of his campaign, is calling on the Democratic National Committee to host a debate solely focused on climate. Bernie Sanders raised the issue during his town hall on Fox News earlier this month - and even drew cheers from the audience when he talked about new jobs in the renewable energy sector. Rising temperatures and the crisis they pose for humans were part of every Democratic candidate's pitch during CNN's marathon of hour-long town halls last week.