Failing the Climate Test

 

“[A]t a time when civilization is accelerating toward disaster, climate silence continues to reign across the bulk of the US news media. Especially on television, where most Americans still get their news, the brutal demands of ratings and money work against adequate coverage of the biggest story of our time. Many newspapers, too, are failing the climate test.” 

—Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope, reporters, “The media are complacent while the world burns,” Columbia Journalism Review, April 30, 2019. Image: The remains of a neighborhood in Paradise, California.

• Editorial Comment: Ain’t no ratings in climate change. Not many people left in Paradise either.

PeezPix

Echium

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“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard