Covering the Climate Crisis Like War, with Oil in the Crosshairs

I was reading an article in Heated, published on July 11, 2023, with the provocative title “Oil Companies Are Laughing While the World Burns.” Arielle Samuelson and Emily Atkin are the co-authors of this piece published on June 11, 2023. It was the subtitle or deck for this article that really got me: “And the news media is once again failing to connect the dots.” What this deck got me was wondering why “climate change,” which is increasingly and quite appropriately being shifted to “climate crisis,” isn’t covered like war, or at least as war gets covered if we happen to be interested in it or, like World War II, involves everybody. War makes good copy and gets people reading—that is, buying papers or otherwise handing over money to get past paid firewalls. So, why is climate change coverage still so thin?

Like a lot of climate change posts and articles in recent weeks, the long run of extra hot days was referenced as an example of how climate change is covered by the media, which is to say, still not covered by the media. The authors point out that the three main TV networks (admittedly, not the triumvirate they used to be) of ABC, CBS, and NBC ran 123 segments on the seemingly ever-expanding heatwave and only in seven of those reports was climate change even mentioned. Unfortunately, the big cable networks of CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News did no better, with the score of 187 segments aired and only eight mentioning climate change. Samuelson and Atkin call this failure to tie the extreme heat to climate change more than an oversight, but rather misinformation. Their subhead, “Misinformation by Omission” had me flashing back to old Baltimore Catechism lessons, but that association makes their argument all the stronger, as far as I’m concerned.

It turns out, a couple of weeks later, the heatwave has continued into a very long period indeed, having started in May up in western Canada and showing up in (or dropping down into) Texas for a long stay even while spreading across a good portion of the southeast US, and as I write this, up north now as far as NYC. The only “good” news I can think of—and I’m using good within quotes—is that this seemingly never-ending and widespread and oppressive weather has triggered in increase in the news media’s citing of climate change factors. I’m expecting, of course, that when things cool down so too will the mention of climate change, but maybe, maybe, there will some ongoing traction.

Still, Samuelson’s and  Atkin’s article takes an even sharper turn toward indictments, and again a subhead sums it up well: “Amid record heat, oil companies double down on inaction.” A damning quote from Shell CEO Wael Sawan and another by TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne is as much proof as any reasonable person requires to conclude the fossil fuel industry has only its own interests at heart. Of course, one could note the record profit earnings of $457 billion last year or profits of nearly $100 billion in the first quarter of 2023. Obviously, not everyone is getting the message about climate change… or maybe they are just happy to profit from ignoring the message.

If I remember my WWII history, the government of the United States curtailed war profiteering and required all economic sectors to contribute to defeating the enemy. The enemy now is even a greater threat, yet fossil fuel is permitted business as usual. A number of climate crisis leaders have moved to reject the very concept of working with the fossil fuel industry, with Al Gore making headlines this week targeting oil companies at the recent Detroit TED Countdown Summit 2023, reportedly saying, “Do you takes us for fools?” when discussing the claims of fossil fuel companies support of climate amelioration.

I am encouraged by this turn, even while appreciating that cutting fossil fuels abruptly will halt most work on renewable energy infrastructure, so the right transition is essential. This transition is tough, complex, and full of challenges—including likely fluctuations in economies at every level including the personal, but the war may be lost if this story of Big Oil isn’t made clear.

There is no time to be anything other than clear, and that clarity must include not only the historic record of the fossil fuel industry in ignoring and suppressing information about climate change’s causes from fossil fuels, but also a hypercritical attention to fossil fuel’s current efforts especially when it comes to tracking the actual capital spending on new fossil fuel resource development. I am discouraged by the poor coverage of climate change generally and specifically the lack of coverage of the practical consequences from the fossil fuel industry’s continuing resistance to the renewable energy infrastructure we need. Fossil Fuel’s business as usual is becoming criminal offence.

We—that is to say, human culture—are at war for survival, but the mainstream media remains too quiet about the crisis. Instead of playing nice, the news media should cover the actions (and inactions, too, of course) of the fossil fuel industry for what it is—a significant negative force in our existential conflict, but then the media—and the politicians, too—would have to earn their dime the old-fashioned way, serving the people they purport to serve instead of money interests. Fossil fuels will need to continue to contribute to our economy, but especially to advance toward a carbon-free world. That means that we need to see fossil fuels for what we now know they are—a useful energy source that is poison to us and therefore to be replaced as expeditiously as possible.

Well, anyway, thanks to Heated for getting me hot under the collar. Keep it up!

 

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