Speech | The worst things about global warming are not even said out loud, says Kerttu Kotakorpi

More positivity. That's what people seem to want from climate news these days, says the meteorologist Kerttu Kotakorpi. At the same time, we want less emphasis on natural disasters caused by climate change.

Kotakorven thinks it's funny, because other fields of journalism do not have a similar requirement.

“No one says about war or economic news that no matter how boring this news is, can you tell something positive and how Finns will benefit from this.”

For a long time, positive news has been told about technical innovations – nuclear power, electric cars or coal recovery – as if they would just come and fix the problem for us, says Kotakorpi. However, they are not even partial solutions at best.

According to Kotakorven, it is also intellectually dishonest to say that climate change would be fought with small changes.

“In order to limit global warming, we need to give up fossil fuels, on which energy production and transport, among other things, largely rely. The systems need to be thoroughly reformed. Similarly, food production, which causes large emissions,” says Kotakorpi.

“These changes will inevitably change the lives of all of us – but hardly for the worse.”

Helsinki Kotakorpi (b. 1987), who graduated as a meteorologist from the university, has been working as a TV meteorologist since 2008. He is currently making a TV series on climate topics for Yle.

According to Kotakorven, in reality, even nowadays, the most unpleasant things are not said out loud. He says that there is still talk of the 1.5 degree goal, which aims to limit global warming, even though it is no longer relevant in any way.

Finland has committed itself to a climate agreement with other countries, the goal of which is to keep the increase in the global average temperature well below two degrees compared to pre-industrial times and to strive for measures to limit the warming to below 1.5 degrees.

According to Kotakorvin, on some days the rise in average global temperatures has even exceeded more than 2 degrees.

“Of course they are momentary excesses. The momentary variation in the climate is great and I understand that the decision-makers stick to it. I don't know if it would be suitable to fuel despair if it were said out loud that the 1.5 degree limit has already passed,” says Kotakorpi.

KotakorPI calls for a moral movement from the decision-makers.

“Our decision-makers talk about sticking to the Paris Agreement, i.e. keeping the warming below 1.5 degrees, but at the same time we don't get clear records about giving up fossil fuels. It is dishonest, because warming cannot be stopped without it.”

According to Kotakorvin At the Dubai Climate Summit however, the agreement reached in December is the first step in the right direction.

In Kotakorven's opinion, the public discussion about global warming has been minor compared to the seriousness of the matter.

“Even with the warming of the seas, which has happened this year. You don't really talk about such things. It's already so big and difficult to understand that it might be easier to focus, for example, only on oat milk.”

This year, especially in Meri, there has been a jump in warming, which is clearly different from the previous trend. Warming has begun to accelerate in a way that has surprised even scientists.

Kerttu Kotakorpi demands that decision-makers have the courage to make better decisions for the environment. “It's by no means easy, but you can't put everything on the shoulders of individuals. It's great that we have people who live an environmentally friendly life and set an example, but we need a big crowd for this.” Picture: Mika Ranta / HS

Daily ones however, short TV or radio weather reports are not the right place to talk about climate change, as their purpose is to tell people what to wear. When you add, for example, news from Ukraine and Gaza, maybe people's disaster measure is already full, Kotakorpi thinks.

“For example, in news about the economy, flying, travel and tourism, the climate may be conspicuous by its absence. After all, it can make people feel that this situation is now as bad as they say.”

What about the entertainment of weather news?

Finland is approaching either a “cold punisher”, a “frost bomb” or a “snow-inferno”.

“I think the weather is terribly interesting, so if such headlines make someone interested in the weather, then great. Maybe they've gone so far that the readers already realize that it's a joke.”

However, situational awareness is needed.

“When you talk about the austerity dome that kills in Europe, it shouldn't sound like a joke.”

In the world there are examples of climate skeptics blaming meteorologists exaggeration or even brainwashing. Kotakorpi says that he received feedback from climate critics mainly in the message service X.

“Perhaps a few decades were too much in Finland to let the denialist side have its say.”

According to Kotakorven, it is important to have a dialogue, but “one should also understand where the line is between general knowledge and some kind of margin.”

“Now it has become clear that the oil companies have paid a lot [ilmastovaikutuksia käsittelevien] obscuring research results, and those learned mantras are repeated even today.”

Kotakorpi published an information book in 2021 Finnish nature 2100 (Bazaar).

“Climate change has long had the problem of talking about scenarios, improbabilities and probabilities. There are difficult and difficult words to understand. I wondered how I could just skip it all.”

So Kotakorpi decided to just “go and see” what Finland will look like in the year 2100. In the book, he goes through the changes that Finland's climate and nature will face in this century.

According to Kotakorven, the most important message of the work is in its title: climate change is not something that happens somewhere else.

“It affects absolutely everyone, and it is by no means a positive thing for Finland or Finns,” he says.

“After all, it's a creepy thought that we're leaving the Earth in a worse condition for future generations who haven't done anything bad.”

Meteorologist Kerttu Kotakorpi is also a non-fiction writer, whose work published in 2021 dealt with the effects of climate change in Finland in 2100. “It's a scary thought that we leave the Earth in a worse condition for future generations who haven't done anything bad.” Picture: Mika Ranta / HS

Correction 14.1. at 10:40 a.m.: The average global temperature has momentarily exceeded 2˚C. Earlier in the story, it was wrongly said that the average temperature of the Earth has exceeded even more than 2 degrees on some days.