This past Wednesday, the Governor's Commission on Climate Change held public hearings at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Concerned citizens from across Virginia showed up to tell the Commission once again that they want real global warming solutions now. Once again, climate change activists outnumbered the opposition (question: why on earth IS there even an "opposition" to saving our planet's environment?!?) by a huge margin. I hear that the "good guys" on this one walked away feeling empowered and triumphant.
Unfortunately, most of the Virginia corporate/traditional media completely ignored this event. One newspaper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, covered the event; here's an excerpt:
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine should be more ambitious in cutting emissions linked to global warming, environmentalists told a state panel yesterday.Kaine wants Virginia to cut emissions of so-called greenhouse gases 30 percent from projected 2025 levels.
Glen Besa, director of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, and others asked yesterday for an 80 percent cut from 1990 levels by 2050.
"Today, we are asking you to save our planet's climate," Besa said.
Glen Besa is absolutely right, scientifically and morally. Here is what the science says: "If we are to have a 50 percent chance of meeting a 2 Celsius target we would have to cut global emissions by 80 percent by 2050." That's about as clear as you can get with this stuff. Can it be done? Yes it can, and yes it must. See here for exactly how.
Sadly, there are still people - mainly tools of the fossil fuel industry - who are denying the science and denying the climate crisis. These "fossil fools," as they are called, sadly include Sen. Frank W. Wagner (R-Virginia Beach). In the Richmond Times-Dispatch article, Wagner "call[s] an 80 percent cut 'ridiculous,'" while writing off the climate change activists as "a very small minority of Virginia's population" and actually claiming that Gov. Kaine's extremely modest greenhouse gas targets are "ambitious." My god - the ignorance, the arrogance, the toolishness!
In reality, cutting carbon emissions 80% by 2050 is very much achievable, if we set our minds to it. Florida's Republican Governor Charlie Crist gets it. Ah-nuld gets it. The neighboring state of Maryland gets it (actually calling for a 90% cut). Barack Obama gets it. John Warner and an increasing number of U.S. Senators get it. Al Gore of course gets it. Increasingly, the American people get it. But the Frank W. Wagners categorically do NOT get it.
Part of the failure here is that the media rarely reports on energy and environmental issues in a way that might actually add to public understanding. Instead, most of what we get is the latest price of "gas" (pet peeve from working at EIA for 17 years: it's "gasoline" - natural gas is "gas") and other silliness. What we do NOT get is points like the following:
*Reducing emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 is based on science and is not "ridiculous" as Sen. Wagner suggests.
*There are major environmental, economic, and social costs of global warming in Virginia (and worldwide) if we fail to act.
*Gov. Kaine's goal of 30% reductions is deceiving. It amounts to an actual reduction of 7% and even this modest proposal for CO2 reductions is inconsistent with approval of the Wise County coal burning plant.
*Sen. Wagner says that climate change activists represent a very small minority, but at the latest meeting in Richmond, they outnumbered the opposition 46-2. So, who exactly is the minority again?
Anyway, the bottom line here is that, on climate change, the corporate media has failed miserably - just as it has with many other important stories ranging from Iraq to Social Security to health care to...you name it. As Helen Thomas has said, journalism in the public interest appears to be dying or dead. Even serious journalism based on research, facts, and what used to be known as "shoe leather" (aka, "hard work," "effort," not just being a bunch of lazy ignoramuses and proud of it) seems to be on life support at best. Instead, it's dumbed-down infotainment, simplistic "on the one hand, on the other hand" reporting, lack of knowledge brought to technical subjects by overextended, overworked, and underpaid journalists (who are generalists, regardless, not subject experts). What a disaster.
Anyway, just for the record, there WAS an important meeting last Wednesday on climate change, lots of climate change activists showed up, and despite Frank W. Wagner's willfully ignorant comments, there IS a serious climate crisis that requires dramatic action by local, state, and national governments (as well as each one of us). The question is, when is the Virginia media going to start reporting on this issue, and stop wasting their time with 12-part series on Chandra Levy and the like? Personally, I'm not holding my breath...how about you?