[ Devastation from Hurricane Dorian provokes calls for reporters
to acknowledge the climate emergencys connection to extreme weather]
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ANALYSIS FINDS US CORPORATE MEDIA 'FAILING TO CONNECT CLIMATE CRISIS
TO STRONGEST ATLANTIC STORM EVER TO HIT LAND'  
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Jessica Corbett
September 4, 2019
Common Dreams
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_ Devastation from Hurricane Dorian provokes calls for reporters to
acknowledge the climate emergency's connection to extreme weather _

An aerial view of damage caused by Hurricane Dorian is seen on Great
Abaco Island on Sept. 4, 2019 in Great Abaco, Bahamas. A massive
rescue effort is underway after Hurricane Dorian spent more than a day
inching over the Bahamas, killing at least seven a, (Photo: Scott
Olson/Getty Images)

 

While Hurricane Dorian marched up the U.S. Southeastern coast
Wednesday after devastating
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Northern Bahamas, advocates for ambitious climate action reiterated
the global emergency's connection to extreme weather—even as an
analysis showed that major corporate news outlets are failing to
report on it.

After making landfall
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a Category 5 hurricane Sunday, Dorian crawled across the
Bahamas Monday
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a trail of utter destruction
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its wake.

The Union of Concerned Scientists explained
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this year how experts believe the human-caused climate crisis is
causing more intense hurricanes:

While hurricanes are a natural part of our climate system, recent
research
[[link removed]]suggests
that there has been an increase in intense hurricane activity in the
North Atlantic since the 1970s. In the future, there may not
necessarily be more hurricanes, but there will likely be more intense
[[link removed]] hurricanes that
carry higher wind speeds and more precipitation as a result of global
warming. The impacts of this trend are likely to be exacerbated by sea
level rise and a growing population along coastlines.

"Although Hurricane Dorian exemplifies what climate scientists have
warned about, major U.S. media outlets are failing to connect the
climate crisis to the strongest Atlantic storm ever to hit land,"
Public Citizen declared
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an analysis Tuesday.

The consumer advocacy group found that "between Friday and Monday,
climate or global warming was mentioned in just 7.2 percent of the 167
pieces on _ABC_, _CBS_, _NBC_, _CNN_, _MSNBC_, and _Fox_. The
top 49 newspapers by circulation didn't do much better. Of them, 32
covered Dorian in their print editions, but only eight papers
connected Dorian to climate. Of 363 articles about Dorian in those
papers' print editions, just nine (2.5 percent) mentioned climate
change."

Public Citizen highlighted the findings on Dorian coverage in a pair
of tweets Tuesday. "For the last damn time: Climate change makes
hurricanes worse," and "the media's cowardice makes climate change
worse," the group wrote.

For the last damn time:
Climate change makes hurricanes worse.

And also:
Climate change makes floods worse.
Climate change makes droughts worse.
Climate change makes wildfires worse.

And finally:
The media's cowardice makes climate change
worse. pic.twitter.com/FRbMjkGMgA [[link removed]]

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) September 3, 2019
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"It is mind-boggling that major media outlets can report about a storm
of epic proportions that is exactly what climate scientists have
warned about yet fail to mention two key words: 'climate
change," said
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Fisher, outreach director for Public Citizen's Energy Program. "We
can't address the looming climate catastrophe if we aren't talking
about it."

Public Citizen was far from alone in that observation. As _New York
Times_ columnist David Leonhardt wrote
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"much of the conversation about Hurricane Dorian—including most
media coverage—ignores climate change." According to him, "That's a
mistake. It's akin to talking about lung cancer and being afraid to
mention smoking, or talking about traffic deaths and being afraid to
talk about drunken driving."

"The media needs to do more," Justice Democrats wrote in an email to
supporters Wednesday. "These natural disasters are escalating because
of climate change, but too few reporters and pundits are willing to
make that connection clear to the public. It doesn't matter if the
climate crisis is a politicized issue—we can't afford to protect the
feelings of conservatives and climate deniers in an era where we're
seeing record high temperatures, massive ice melts, and deadly natural
disasters."

While much of the corporate media failed to make the climate
connection in Dorian coverage, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)
acknowledged it on Twitter Tuesday evening. Sharing a video taken from
a helicopter over the Bahamas, she tweeted, "This is what climate
change looks like: it hits vulnerable communities first."

This is what climate change looks like: it hits vulnerable communities
first.

I can already hear climate deniers screeching: “It’s always been
like this! You’re dim,” etc.

No. This is about science & leadership. We either decarbonize&cut
emissions, or we don’t & let people die. [link removed]
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— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 3, 2019
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Ocasio-Cortez, the House's lead sponsor of the historic Green New Deal
resolution unveiled in February, added that the global community has a
clear choice: either decarbonize and dramatically reduce
planet-heating emissions—or don't, and "let people die."

Aerial footage of the Bahamas post-Dorian was also shared on social
media by Greta Thunberg
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whose protests outside the Swedish Parliament last year helped spur
the global climate strike movement
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The teen activist tweeted Wednesday, "How many more nations in ruins
do we need to see?"

How many more nations in ruins do we need to see?#ClimateEmergency
[[link removed]]#EcologicalEmergency
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— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) September 4, 2019
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The indepedent news program _Democracy Now!_ is among the outlets
that have acknowledged how the climate crisis relates to Dorian,
including with a Wednesday morning report
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"'This Is a Climate Emergency': Islands Devastated by Dorian Are on
the Frontlines of a Dying Planet."

"While the science has yet to come in on the specifics of just how
much worse climate change made Dorian, we already know enough to say
that warming worsened the damage," Michael Mann, a professor at
Pennsylvania State University, and Andrew Dessler, a professor at
Texas A&M University, wrote
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an op-ed published by _The Guardian_ Wednesday.

After outlining what scientists do know about planetary heating and
hurricanes—including the evolving theory that climate change may
cause storms to stall, leading to extra flooding and damage—the pair
concluded that Dorian is "a preview of the climate crisis to come. The
only question is whether we have the foresight to address it."

"Global heating made Hurricane Dorian bigger, wetter – and more
deadly" | My op-ed with @AndrewDessler
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The @Guardian
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— Michael E. Mann (@MichaelEMann) September 4, 2019
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Emergency response and humanitarian crews continued assessing the
damage in the Bahamas and providing relief to residents of the islands
Wednesday while Dorian moved parallel along the Florida coast as a
Category 2 hurricane
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maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. According to 
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National Hurricane Center, as of mid-afternoon Wednesday, there are
various hurricane, tropical storm, and storm surge watches and
warnings in effect between Florida and Virginia.

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