On the Ezra Klein show, speaking about the media's poor initial handling of Covid, @zeynep offered a powerful explanation for the broadcast news' ongoing failure to cover the #ClimateCrisis: the norms governing its institutional behavior are subject to profound inertia.
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Attempting to change norms, we call out broadcast news shows like @ABCWorldNews, @CBSEveningNews, & @NBCNightlyNews, showing them the absurdity of not mentioning the words "climate change" when they report on extreme weather or other stories directly connected to the crisis.
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But outside pressure only goes so far: we need every powerful journalist, producer, & editor who understands the climate threat to help normalize making the connections to climate in stories about its causes and effects—in stories about energy and pandemics, eg.
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This inside work will take courage. It is uncomfortable. @zeynep talked about feeling alienated from her colleagues and friends (having an "out of body experience") after she recognized the danger of Covid while other journalists were still concerned mostly about "alarmism."
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This kind of "out of body" experience with respect to climate is exactly what inspired our founder @Doctorvive to start End Climate Silence.
We dearly hope that @zeynep will turn her attention to climate breakdown, our biosphere being the system that intertwines with and enables all human systems.
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Indeed, evidence is emerging that #climatechange played a role in the evolution/transmission of SARS-COV-2 itself.
And we dearly hope that everyone at @TheAtlantic and @nytopinion who understands the gravity of the climate crisis, and who has connections in network and cable broadcasting, will help by doing inside work to shift norms and encourage your colleagues to #EndClimateSilence.
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This week a Siberian town clocked a temperature of 100F, 32F above normal, the hottest temp ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle. This is both news and a blaring alarm warning us that our children are in danger.
@brianneDMR from the @DMRegister should learn that trade policy IS an arm of climate policy.
@CNN should train @wolfblitzer & @abbydphillip to see the ways #ClimateChange intersects with jobs, health care, national security, foreign policy, and economic sustainability.
Meanwhile one of the first climate change "positive feedbacks" has begun...
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@ThisWeekABC@MeetThePress@FaceTheNation@CNNSotu The Arctic is on fire. Over 100 peat blazes since June 1st, releasing smoke-plumes visible from space. Last month alone Arctic fires emitted 50 megatons of CO2, “equal to Sweden’s total annual emissions.”
@ThisWeekABC@MeetThePress@FaceTheNation@CNNSotu So hot and dry now, Greenland, Siberia, and Alaska are burning like California, releasing carbon into our atmosphere and increasing the amount of heat that will be trapped in our planetary system, drying out forests and peat even further, and so on.
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