(Image: Private Media/Mitchell Squire)

When the world’s top climate scientists announced last week that Australia’s climate was becoming more extreme and would get even worse, Australian media took note.

Then, almost immediately, they moved on.

The first part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report evaluates the physical science of climate change. It is horrific reading. It found that global warming could push temperatures to 1.5 degrees beyond pre-industrial levels. Fires, droughts and floods are expected to get worse. Australia’s climate has already been become warmer, drier and wetter. The United Nations called it a “code red for humanity”.

Data from media monitoring company Streem shows that although the IPCC made a splash at first — with hundreds of mentions in the media and hours in the top section of news — it wasn’t long until interest waned.

On Tuesday, the first day in Australia after the report came out, there were 816 stories online, in print, on radio and TV. Online articles spent 368 hours in the top of Australian news websites, suggesting it was one of the biggest stories of the day.

Just two days later this plummeted to 270 stories and 54 hours in the top of news websites. Two days later — four days after the report — there were fewer than 100 stories in total and 63 hours in the top stories.

Incredibly, the IPCC report wasn’t even the top story in Australia last week by time spent in website’s top stories. It was the top non-COVID-19 related story, but came fifth behind Sydney’s, the ACT’s and Melbourne’s lockdowns, and Byron Bay’s COVID-19 exposure.

The Climate Council’s communication director, Lisa Upton, says it was encouraging to see the IPCC report get an initial burst of coverage — but the threat posed by climate change needs consistent coverage.

“The fast-moving news cycle is understandable given the current crowded domestic and international news environment, but that does not change the urgency of the climate crisis,” she said.

“While we hope that media organisations will continue to give due attention to this important issue, it is even more essential that politicians act and deliver the rapid emissions reductions we need.”