You know what’s wild? Today’s kids are living in the coolest temperatures and most stable weather patterns they will ever experience because of accelerating climate change. You know what’s even more wild? Most adults aren’t doing a damn thing to change that. And perhaps even more unbelievable: it didn’t have to be this way, but it is, thanks in part to what I call Yellow Journalism. In this case, yellow meaning chickenshit scared to report the truth.
I’ve written on this travel blog how we’ve seen massive infrastructure projects in every developing nation we have visited. The Global South is set to bring the ‘easy living’ to its populations – the type of car crazy, single-use consumerism enjoyed by the Global North for so long. New highways and new gas stations, as plastic trash piles up and pollution gets worse, as the temperature steadily increases.
And I assume you’ve seen the latest climate news, but wait — maybe you haven’t because Yellow Journalists don’t cover it well, if at all.
The simple fact is this: we’ve breached the global warming 1.5 degree Celsius mark meant to stave off the worst destructive climate change effects. Bad things like Los Angeles burning and western North Carolina blown apart and washed away by a hurricane.
And yet, there’s next to nothing to see about this milestone event on Yellow Journalism sites on the day this news is announced. Not even when the paywalls are lifted.
What strikes me – and many other readers – is that there is no mention on the front page that climate change is the reason the Santa Ana winds were so intense. No mention in other media, either, like ABC News, CBS News, etc.
The shot below of the New York Times desktop site puts the blame game for the LA fires as its top story — but their blame game coverage involves a convicted felon versus a leftist shill. There’s no mention of Big Oil and its great dupe of Americans, or of the Global North’s endless fossil fuel consumption. Instead, it’s a reactionary piece meant to … what?
Scroll down the NYT for more fire coverage, and you see a story about how climate change is making fires worse — but nothing about what’s making climate change worse.
One the desktop version, you can see there is also a guest essay from a climate scientist labeled ‘opinion’. (That essay is not as prominent on the app, by the way.)
Dr. Peter Kalmus reveals he has been so worried about a climate-change induced inferno around Los Angeles that he moved his family to another state a couple of years ago. His essay blames Big Oil, but his piece is labeled opinion so the casual reader previously influenced by lies from climate denialists might be forgiven if they skip over his article.
Next are stories about TikTok, Trump’s felony sentencing and how it means nothing, a story about America’s former favorite mayor Rudy Giuliani found in contempt of court over defamation of election workers. Yes, the same guy whose relevance is irrelevant.
No Climate Change news. No tipping point news.
Then comes the sane-washing of how Meta is going to make changes that allow hate to flourish against LGBTQ+ – and women – if it’s part of someone’s ‘religion’.
Did you know Bob Dylan is “having a moment?” Because that’s next in the Times desktop lineup. Oh — and did you know 2024 ended on a strong job market?
Still no Climate Change news.
Eventually you get to the ‘Well’ section, which is full of advice for good sex, healthy eating, and preventing binge drinking. I’m sure these are fascinating stories – and I’ve read that type of stuff myself. But I’m looking for more information on Climate Change from the Yellow Journalists.
Culture and lifestyle is next on the way down, with stories on luxurious retreats and 19th century chocolate information of some type, and that is all followed by games. I’ve stopped playing Wordle because I’ve stopped reading the Times, despite our subscription.
Something big still feels missing.
After all of that, I see more news sections that look like this:
The second row has the science section:
And now, finally, the third row has a climate section (!):
Let’s take a closer look at the top story in the Climate and Environment section:
Now What? Well, gee, I dunno. Maybe you could be more clear in that headline? Maybe tell me 2024 was the first year the world broke the 1.5 degree Celsius warming limit set by the international treaty called the Paris Agreement? That we were trying to avoid 1.5 degrees warming by the end of the century, but instead blew by it 75 years earlier?
How about you tell me in that story (which you don’t) that we’re on track to warm up much more from here? That a 43 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 outlined by that treaty now feels impossible? Maybe report on why this is — using science and not two-sideism?
Maybe the reporters whose names are on the article could lobby Yellow Journalism editors to give this urgency?
These things might be a start to your stupid and somewhat flippant question of ‘Now What?’
The NYT mobile app did have a story titled “‘We’re in a New Era’: How Climate Change Is Supercharging Disasters” a few good solid scrolls down, buried somewhere. I never did see it on the desktop. The story was an accounting of recent climate disasters. It featured hand-wringing by climate scientists who said stuff like: “we sound like broken records because records keep breaking.” The story did not name Big Oil or our consumer-driven lifestyles as causes of speeding up Earth’s warming.
Global warming experienced as a budget slow traveler – who flies as little as possible
Was I crazy, or was the temperature really hotter than average – by a lot – at every single destination we visited? I keept screen shots in 2023 and 2024. Each year was the ‘hottest ever’.
I kept observing record heat in 2024 and wondered if we would bolt past the 1.5 degree mark. How foolish of me to wonder about whether that would be the outcome – especially when experientially I saw higher temperatures practically everywhere we went.
My biggest world observation from budget slow travel in 2023 was that the climate change effort was fucked. There are too many developing countries preparing to have an easier life – a life enjoyed by the Global North for decades. And that year, I saw climate denialism hit new lows among American family members – because they were parroting back what was ‘reported’ by the ‘news’ — and not just Fox News.
So, as we start off 2025 with more climate-related disasters, I expect Yellow Journalists to continue to ignore the context that greatly matters to our collective existence: how we truly got here through our consumption, and how we can out through stopping that consumption. HA!
Americans will never stop driving cars or being good consumers in an oligarchic system explained to them as capitalistic freedom. At least, not until their homes burn, are blown apart or washed away from fire, wind and rain storms.
What Dr. Kalmus says about Big Oil also applies to Yellow Journalism:
“Nothing will change until our anger gets powerful enough. But once you accept the truth of loss and the truth of who perpetrated and profited from that loss, the anger comes rushing in, as fierce as the Santa Ana winds.”
(Here is a gift link to his moving essay.)
Thanks for reading, “Commentary: Yellow Journalism & Global North denial.”
Related: 10 World travel observations in 2023 (the biggest: climate denialists won
Climate catastrophe note
Budget slow travel means we don’t own a car and we fly as little as possible, so we emit less carbon than casual tourists.
Sadly, we see the negative impacts of the climate crisis all over the world.
For a scientific look at the current crisis and fast-approaching catastrophe, we highly recommend The Climate Book. Civilization is running out of time to evolve.
And the climate emergency countdown clock we’ve had on our site for years seems to have run out of time now that we’ve passed the 1.5°C threshold.