Global media outlets cover these firestorms like the disasters they are, but too few point out that human-driven climate change is their shared accelerant.
Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP (Getty Images)
TV newsman Bill Moyers likes to tell the story of how Edward R. Murrow, the preeminent U.S. broadcast journalist of his time, insisted on covering what became Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. Murrow’s bosses at CBS News had other priorities; they ordered Murrow’s reporters to cover dance competitions in Hamburg, Paris, and London, explaining that Americans needed some happy news. Murrow wouldn’t do it. “It’ll probably get us fired,” he told his colleagues, but he sent his correspondents to the German-Polish border; they arrived just in time to witness Hitler’s tanks and troops roar into Poland. Suddenly, Europe was at war. And Americans heard about it because journalists at one of the nation’s most influential news outlets defied convention and did their jobs.
but i have to say even i, with a tv show, struggled to figure out ways to give it the attention it deserves. particularly because it s hard to find a news hook for the slow, gradual melting of the planet. ironically, news about the lack of coverage gives us an excuse to talk about it today. media coverage of climate change stories are down according to daily climate.org. you can see the spike in 2007. that is mt. goramanjara. that is solely a thousand percent due to al gore s film convenient truth. part of the problem, of course, here is it s a very abstract story. the epa is trying to bring climate change home. their website at ghgdata.gov.