[Edit to add due to posting limit. Like most people I don't pop down to the cornershop for to buy newspapers anymore (less than once a year). I access news online, and take it all with a pinch of salt. If it's behind a paywall, I won't look at it. I don't think I am unusual in those respects judging by the large piles of unsold papers I see when I go to shops later in the day. Climate change is well publicised and is not something obscure. The BBC mentions it in pretty much every nature documentary as well.]
The ECIU used the Factiva media database to analyse the output, in print and online, of nine UK national newspapers from 22 June to 28 June: the Express, the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Independent, the Mail, the Mirror, the Sun, the Telegraph and the Times.
The FT scored highest on relating extreme heat stories to the climate, with nearly two thirds making the link – that is, 50 out of its 78 stories over the period. The Guardian came next, with roughly half of its heat-related stories drawing the link to the climate crisis – 64 out of 131 articles.
The Independent was the most prolific of the outlets studied, with 783 heatwave stories over the period, of which 304 – roughly 39% – mentioned the climate. About a fifth of the Mail’s more than 300 heatwave stories referred to global heating, and about one in eight of the 400-plus stories in the Express.
The Mirror also had a large number of heatwave stories – more than 300 – but only 9% of them mentioned the climate. The Sun came bottom of the ranking, with 69 heatwave stories in the time studied, of which only 6% included a climate angle.