Climate crisis information locked behind english-only barrier, leaving billions in the dark

A devastating gap in climate communication is putting billions of people at risk worldwide. When massive wildfires forced 19,000 residents to evacuate Yellowknife, Canada in 2023, emergency alerts went out only in English and French—completely bypassing the nine official Indigenous languages spoken in the Northwest Territories. Indigenous families scrambled to find life-saving information through friends, radio, and social media instead of receiving direct official warnings.

This emergency highlights a much larger problem identified by Climate Cardinals, a youth-led advocacy organization. Their new research reveals that 80% of climate science papers are published exclusively in English, despite English being spoken by just 18% of the global population. This language barrier doesn’t just limit access to information—it fundamentally shapes what climate realities are recognized and addressed by policymakers.

The stakes are particularly high for Indigenous communities, who face a cruel double bind. They experience some of the most severe climate impacts, from Arctic ice loss to intensifying storms, yet receive the least accessible information about these threats. Meanwhile, their languages—which contain irreplaceable knowledge about local ecosystems and weather patterns—are themselves endangered by both colonialism and climate-driven displacement.

Climate Cardinals is calling for a global climate language access fund to support translations of research, government reports, and emergency alerts. While funding remains challenging given governments’ poor track record on climate finance commitments, experts argue that hiring translators and multilingual educators should be built into all climate policy structures. As one researcher put it: “Language is a matter of climate justice.”