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Media letting us down, ignoring the full seriousness of climate change

When will humans be horrified by climate change? When the media give it the coverage it deserves LA Times, Grace Bertalot, 22 Sept 17 We hear a variety of explanations for the American public’s lack of real alarm about climate change: The science requires a fair amount of explanation; the enormity of the effects will become indisputable only at some future date; and economic interests and ideological momentum keep society moving along well-worn paths. (“Why the wiring of our brains makes it hard to stop climate change,” Opinion, Sept. 17)

But we are homo sapiens, the “clever humans” whose technology has transformed our planet. Are we really incapable of recognizing an existential threat and moving quickly enough to avert catastrophe?

Against all the forces that encourage confusion, indecision, and delay, one institution bears the ultimate responsibility for educating the public and sounding the alarm: the media. However, reporting on climate remains lamentably uneven and incomplete.

Every reputable news venue should be providing ongoing coverage of climate science, its implications for our way of life, and a thorough discussion of the pathways out of our predicament.

Pam Brennan,  Blaming inaction regarding climate change on human heuristics is a great way to kick the can of responsibility down the road to the next generation. It’s what the baby boomer generation did when faced with evidence of a big hole in the ozone and its threat to human viability in the eighties.

Wait. No, they didn’t. They enacted legislation in cooperation with global countries to regulate the industry responsible for the offending imbalance in the global atmospheric equilibrium. It was the Montreal Protocol, and it worked.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-le-climate-change-brains-media-20170922-story.html

September 23, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general