Recently I fired off my first letter to the editor. The missive was not published.(Well, it was my first letter to the editor when I wasn’t in fact the editor and the recipient of my own ersatz correspondence).
In the midst of the awesome and awful bushfires engulfing Australia I issued a hastily worded epistle to The Age.
My point? The thing that had got up my craw was that it had taken Australia immolating for The Age to finally prioritise coverage for climate change as an issue worth reporting on and informing its audiences about.
In July last year (not long after the federal election) only a very small percentage of Australians were concerned about climate change. That figure has obviously changed now.
It wasn’t that nothing was happening in terms of the issue, was the point I was trying to make in my letter, merely that it hadn’t been reported very well. Contextualised. Framed.
I have read and heard so many people say since the fires tore through our country that the Earth’s climate is always changing, and the very hot conditions prevailing through bushfire season were merely a manifestation of this.
But do they realise the Earth is actually the hottest its been since humankind has been upon it?
Or that the level of carbon in our atmosphere is the highest it has been for 12 million years – back when Antarctica had forests on it?
Is your average Age reader aware that July 2019 was the hottest month on record?
These milestone tell a story: the narrative of a planet heating up.
Anyway, here’s the unpublished epistle in question:
Kudos to The Age for its excellent coverage of Australia’s heartbreakingly destructive bushfires. Chip Le Grand’s front-line reporting in particular has been as evocative as it is informative.
Where The Age has been less than stellar, however, is in its coverage of climate change in general.
This could be said for the past decade (the Earth’s hottest on record), the past five years (see above), and in particular over the past year (Australia’s hottest and driest on record).
Only now that the country is literally combusting are we finally talking about this crucial issue ahead of relatively trivial matters such as franking credits, Royal Family vicissitudes, or footy.
Meanwhile, over the past 12 months some major climate milestones have either been ignored or given low priority.
Consider that July 2019 was the Earth’s hottest month on record, with records dating back to 1880 in some countries.
June was the hottest June on record, and September, October, November and December either equalled or set new temperature records for these months.
August was the second hottest August on record (ref. Copernicus Climate Change Service).
In short, the world is heating up. Indeed, our planet is the warmest it’s been since humankind has been on it.
Harvard University Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry James Anderson says the level of carbon now in the atmosphere has not been seen in 12 million years.
Best known for establishing that chlorofluorocarbons were damaging the ozone layer (which led to the Montreal Protocol), Anderson says me must act, and act immediately.
To avoid the worst effects of climate change, an epic global mobilisation of resources is needed to halt carbon pollution and remove it from the atmosphere, and to reflect sunlight away from the poles.
This must be done, he says, within five years.
Perhaps I was being a bit harsh. The Age has certainly done a far superior job than News reporting on the issue. Unlike the papers in Rupert Murdoch’s Australian stable, Age columnists acknowledge climate change. The issue is covered regularly.
Coverage has certainly improved since the bushfire crisis unfolded, but this must continue to be the case.
matthewdillon.net 