Pirate's Cove

The climate cultists are wishful (and unwilling to practice what they preach nor spend their own money)

The Real Issue At Stake: Why The US 2020 Elections Is A Climate Story More Than Anything

EVERY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION is critical in its way. Even so, 2020 manages to feel unique. With a deadly virus stalking the land and crashing the economy and political polarization so high that the truth itself is often in question, this November will certainly mark a turning point in American history.

The election is also pivotal for the climate emergency—and its solutions.

As Justin Worland wrote in the cover story for a tour de force Time magazine special issue last week, “In the future, we may look back at 2020 as the year we decided to keep driving off the climate cliff—or to take the last exit.” A serious response to the threat, he said, means spending on green energy, restricting emissions for companies that receive government bailouts, and bolstering green transportation in cities. Entrenchment in fossil fuels will instead spell climate catastrophe. “What we do now,” Worland wrote, “will define the fate of the planet—and human life on it—for decades.”

Well, good luck with this. No one really cares, except in theory. In practice, they care about the economy, COVID19, and, can you believe defunding the police? Who had that last one on their “2020 Issues” card? Yapping about ‘climate change’ has failed again and again. If it was so important, then why did the Hotcoldwetdry candidate, Tom Steyer and Jay Inslee bomb out fast?

In any election year, it is journalists’ job to inform the public and convey the full measure of what’s at stake. That’s why, even as the coronavirus outbreak rages—a tragic case study in ignoring science—and activists fight to topple long-standing systems of inequality, the climate crisis must be a priority for newsrooms this campaign season.

I thought it was a journalist’s job to report the news, not be activists? And they wonder why they are rated so low and no one trusts them.

Still, doing justice to the climate story will take leadership and discipline from newsrooms. Reporters and editors must step back from ephemeral shifts in the polls and all the nitnoid controversies of campaign overload. Decades from now, most of us will have forgotten the names and deeds of Donald Trump’s various associates. But we will surely take note of unlivable heat and flood waters lapping at our feet if we ignore the climate crisis this campaign season. Will journalists count the 2020 election a missed opportunity, or will it be the breakthrough moment when they got the climate story right—and helped America do the same?

Good luck with this. If the “news” tries pushing it, people will tune out for outlets involved in reporting things that actually matter, not a low hanging issue like this.