In summer 2024, as many as 144 locations in Japan registered the highest temperatures ever recorded in history. Following the previous year when the world average temperature was record-high, extreme heat devoured people’s lives, causing heat strokes and death causalities due to heavy rains. With diverse areas of the world also frequented by abnormal phenomena, such as heavy-rain-induced flooding and drought, climate change is now considered the gravest threat to humans.

To explore how the media should address the climate change crisis that is becoming more and more serious, the first half of this paper reports new attempts by weather forecasters, who have developed a sense of urgency about the ever-worsening situation, to send out a massage to media audiences to change their attitudes.

The second half presents the activities of a journalist who also feels a strong sense of urgency and continuously investigates and reports locally-led initiatives of introducing renewable energy as a key pillar to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. His journalistic activities have revealed the effects of “locally produced and consumed” of energy, which can solve both the challenges inherent to rural communities, such depopulation and dwindling population, and the global challenges of climate change.

The author reports the shared awareness of the crisis among those involved in the media and their endeavors to seek solutions to the challenges.