Changes terminology for Planeta Tierra and other coverage of the issue

NBCU's Spanish language network Telemundo is ramping up the rhetoric on the impact of severe weather, and it is not alone.

Its Noticias Telemundo news department said Thursday it will now refer to a "climate emergency" rather than "climate change" or "global warming," neither of which relay the threat most scientists agree is clear and present.

The network affiliates are free to make their own decision about what to call it on their local news and information programming said a Telemundo spokesperson.

Telemundo has a division, Planet Tierra, launched in 2018 to cover the issue full time.

The President has recently suggested the issue and what it is called is more about branding than about the degree of existential threat, though he did not include the new monicker Telemundo has chosen. "Don't forget, it used to be called global warming, that wasn't working, then it was called climate change, now it's actually called extreme weather because with extreme weather you can't miss," the president told Piers Morgan in an interview on ITV's Good Morning Britain this week.

Telemundo execs signaled they have no doubt what the issue is about. “The use of clear and accurate language in covering critical subjects such as the climate emergency is not merely an option for journalists; it is their duty,” said Luis Fernández, Telemundo’s EVP of network news.

Telemundo pointed to similar moves by Britain’s Guardian newspaper and Spin's EFE news agency.