Media Silence During a Year of Climate Disasters

FEATURING DAVID ARKUSH – Californians welcomed rain this week after months of dry weather fueled last year’s horrific wildfires. But in recently torched areas the rains triggered mudslides that turned roads into rivers of silt and caused further damage killing at least 5 people.

On the other side of the nation East Coasters are still recovering from the so-called “bomb cyclone” that hit the Atlantic and dropped record snow and froze beaches. The year has begun with a dire series of disasters and, if 2017’s record of deadly climate-related patterns was any indication of the future we face, we are in trouble.

Except you may not know it from consuming our mainstream media, which according to a new report, did an appalling job last year in linking climate change to climate disasters. According to the report called ‘Carbon Omission,’ “The proportion of pieces that mentioned climate change in climate-relevant contexts was decidedly low.”

Download the report ‘Carbon Omission,’ “The proportion of pieces that mentioned climate change in climate-relevant contexts was decidedly low.”, HERE.

David Arkush, managing director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program and lead author of the report Carbon Omission: How the U.S. Media Underreported Climate Change in 2017.