Fast Company: "There’s a deadly heat wave in Europe. Experts are begging media outlets to stop making it look fun"

Another news outlet, Agence France-Presse, published an image of a woman in a red dress, wetting her hair in a fountain, alongside a story about canceled sports events in Spain and Germany and the news that France restricted public consumption of alcohol in red-alert areas due to the heat. 

But that isn’t the right kind of image to illustrate a heat wave, Gernot Wagner, a climate economist with Columbia Business School, wrote on Bluesky. “It’s a young woman on a gurney, fighting for her life after a heat stroke.”

Conveying the serious impacts of extreme weather is part of the responsibility of such news articles, says Wagner at Columbia Business School.

“Heat kills—people, productivity, you name it. Saying as much in words—and yes, also with pictures, which, no offense, is how most people consume the news—is one of the more basic functions of journalism,” he told Fast Company via email.

“Most people don’t experience heat waves as a pleasant day on the beach,” he adds. “They experience them sweltering, trying to keep up with daily life.”

But heat has other impacts. Along with the health effects, Wagner thinks about the economic effects. He knows that it’s a challenge, he says, to show that “one additional day above 32 °C (90 °F) lowers annual payroll by 0.04%, equal to 2.1% of average weekly earnings.”

But he adds, “I do know a picture of young people having fun at the beach isn’t it.”