The Media Is Failing Us On Climate Change Reporting

Oil companies are laughing while the world burns, and the news media is once again failing to connect the dots.

by Arielle Samuelson and Emily Atkin, Heated

Over the July 4th holiday, while Americans were firing up their barbecues and setting off fireworks, the world broke a new record.

Earth had her three hottest days ever recorded since instrumental measurements began in the 1850s. One climate scientist told the Washington Post that last week’s global average temperatures were likely the highest in 125,000 years. Another climate scientist, Bill McGuire, called the record heat “totally unprecedented and terrifying.”

a tv showing a factory against a blue sky with green grass

The grim milestone may be unprecedented, but it’s not unexpected. Texas and the Southwest broke records just last month as a heat dome drove the heat index above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48°C). Parts of northern and east India similarly suffered under a deadly heat wave that killed nearly 100 people last month. Muslim pilgrims observing this year’s Hajj walked through temperatures of 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45°C).

The evidence that climate change is not merely a phenomenon, but a crisis, a catastrophe, and a calamity, grows stronger every day. Only a few decades ago, no journalist would have dreamed of writing a sentence like, “The Earth is getting too hot for humans to survive.” But we not only write that sentence this week, we expect to write it in weeks to come.