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The MSM is Failing and It's Up to Us - This is Not a Drill [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-07-04  

As we all wait for Jack Smith to (maybe? probably? perhaps?) bring Donald Trump to justice, and feast on scraps of gossip from former press secretaries about seeing the former president commit felonies in front of her incredulous (one presumes) eyes, and while we shudder in horror at unfolding revelations about how then-Chief of Staff John Kelly had to talk TFG down from sexual salivation over his own daughter, the world continues to warm.

We here at Daily Kos are well aware of the rising temperatures, the records that are being broken, the millions of sea creatures dying, and the heatwaves and rain bombs pummeling Japan and India and Louisiana and Germany and Spain.

Here we have redoubtable reporters — our own brave cadre of witnesses to the ever-more-swiftly unfurling breakdown. We read in horror. Perhaps we weep. We resolve to DO SOMETHING — vote blue, make calls, donate money, perhaps march or protest in some way.

The news is horrific right now, Kossacks. Horrific. And reporting is at least slightly on the rise, it seems, as the news becomes more and more inescapable.

From Phoenix, Arizona.

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM MST FRIDAY... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions. Afternoon temperatures 106 to 113.

From the Guardian:

Millions swelter under extreme heat as climate crisis tightens grip on US Heat dome of high pressure hovers over Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma as thousands remain without power in Chicago with heavy rains knocking down trees and power lines

Here’s the BBC:

The average monthly temperature of 15.8C (60.4F) exceeded the previous highest average June temperature, recorded in 1940 and 1976, by 0.9C. Climate change made the chance of surpassing the previous joint record at least twice as likely, scientists also said. Records were broken in 72 of the 97 areas in the UK from which temperature data is collected.

The Guardian again:

Climate-heating El Niño has arrived and threatens lives, declares UN World Meteorological Organization warns of record temperatures and extreme heat in environmental ‘double whammy’ The arrival of a climate-heating El Niño event has been declared by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with officials warning that preparation for extreme weather events is vital to save lives and livelihoods.

From the website Arctic Risk:

A current extreme heatwave in Siberia is bringing new record temperatures daily. Heat records are being broken daily. In some places, like Kurgan, temperatures exceeded 38°C. Above the Arctic Circle, temperatures surpassed 24°C. Above-average temperatures in this particular region are worrying because they can lead to further thawing of permafrost, which is the frozen ground that covers a significant portion of Siberia. Permafrost thaw releases large amounts of greenhouse gases, such as methane and carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere, further contributing to the greenhouse effect. By trapping more heat in the atmosphere, these emissions thus amplify global warming, leading to more frequent and severe heatwaves in the region and beyond. Thawing permafrost can lead to infrastructure damage, causing buildings and roads to crumble as the land gives way underneath. Thus, the loss of permafrost can significantly alter the landscape and affect local communities that rely on the land for agriculture, transportation, and traditional practices.

Even the Washington Post is reporting:

Why sea creatures are washing up dead around the world Dead fish in Florida. Beached whales in New Jersey. Sea urchins, starfish and crayfish washing ashore in New Zealand. Millions of rotting fish clogging up a river in the Australian outback. A mass fish die-off in Poland. Around the world, freshwater and marine creatures are dying in large numbers, leaving experts to puzzle over the cause.

But there is still equivocation:

In some cases, scientists say climate change may be leading to more algal blooms and other events that starve fish of oxygen. Warming oceans and marine heat waves are driving sea creatures from their normal habitats. Human activities including coastal shipping are suspected in a spate of recent marine mammal deaths in the United States.

In addition, much of the reporting simply fails to mention the climate, or tie the record-breaking events to the breakdown of our pre-industrial climate.

The American media writ large continues to fail to say “climate change,” and when it does, uses weasel words and equivocating phrases: words like “could,” and “may,” and well-worn turns of phrase like “in some cases” and “are suspected” and “while no one incident can be tied with any certainty to the warming climate.”

The climate crisis is terrifying. The unvarnished truth about what is happening can be overwhelming. No one wants to hear that their home is dying — that the fragile planetary spacecraft carrying them through the galaxy may very soon no longer be able to support life. But we MUST hear it. And the mainstream media continues to fail.

Humans want to believe that things are not as bad as they seem. Everyone wants to think there’s a silver lining. We all yearn for some “everything’s back to normal, folks!” ending to this story.

But there will be no such ending. As the media write blithely of “a new normal,” the simple truth is that we have not plateaued at some next stage of climate, where we will remain for awhile and get used to it. Every decade is going to be worse. Even given some year-over-year variation, each summer will be more sweltering, each hurricane season wilder, each wildfire season longer and hotter and more devastating. More of us will have to flee our homes. More of us will be flooded out, burned out, driven away by choking, acrid wildfire smoke. There is no happy ending.

And it is the job of the media to tell us that. It is the job of the media to report the facts, even if those facts are horrifyingly dire.

Here’s how the BBC codifies that:

Journalism plays a very important role in democratic societies. One of its main purposes is to supply voters with the information they need to make informed choices, for example, about how they are going to vote in an election. (my emphasis)

The BBC is doing a relatively decent job. European news outlets are producing more robust coverage. Our American media is NOT.

As consumers, we are being done a grave, grave disservice. Those of us “in the know” already, and those of us who want to actively seek out information to keep ourselves knowledgeable, will be able to make those “informed choices” about where to put our money, what political decisions to make, and in the case of the changing climate, where to live and how to prepare.

The vast majority of the American people, however, are being woefully underinformed. And without the facts, they cannot make informed choices.

What can we do about this situation? Very little, I think, where it comes to moving our corporate media off dead center.

It seems hopeless to think that individuals could ever push the giant media conglomerates off their safe platform of sparse reporting and equivocating language. The forces of inertia and corporate cash are conspiring to keep most media outlets on the path of under-reporting and false “both sides” argle bargle.

So it seems that the job of properly informing our fellow Americans has been left to us — the reporters and contributors on platforms like Daily Kos. It is we who must continue to sound the alarum. It is up to us to get the message out and let the rest of our fellow travelers know that “#ClimateChange” has become “#ClimateCrisis” and that the time to act is NOW.

I come here for the climate reporting and will continue to do so. I tweet out stories on that blazing tire fire Twitter, as well as boost them on Mastodon and Instagram. I let everyone know who will listen to me that you can get the plain, unvarnished truth — and useful information that might help make personal decisions — here, on Mother Jones, and on another few select platforms where the editorial position is not to stick their collective head in the sand and IGNORE the flames rising all around.

This feels important and useful, but at the same time, isn’t it just exhausting to know that there is no other choice? Because there isn’t. And this is not a drill .

-Kïra Thomsen-Cheek

Asking did not work.

Voting did not work.

Marching did not work.

Emissions keep going up.

Our “leaders” have failed us.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/4/2179257/-The-MSM-is-Failing-and-It-s-Up-to-Us-This-is-Not-a-Drill

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