Scientists are saying that by the year 2050 we will pass the 2 degree threshold and that was before the election of Trump. Watch Paul Jay’s urgent appeal and make a donation today.
Story Transcript
PAUL JAY, TRNN: Hi, I’m Paul Jay at the Real News. Perhaps there’s no issue more burning and more critical than strengthening our climate change coverage. Scientists are telling us by the year 2050 well pass the 2 degree threshold t. That’s 2 degrees of warming since preindustrial global temperature. That 2 degree threshold reaching it by 2050, only 34 years away. That’s model is created based on the idea that all the countries that signed the Paris Agreement would live up to all of the pledges. Now that was kind of unlikely to begin with but is completely out of the questions with the election of the Trump administration which are climate deniers and seem bent on not only not fulfilling the pleasant of the climate of the Paris Agreement. But even going further. Appointing various people who will gut the EPA, will roll back some of the executive orders on carbon emissions. They’ve already announced that they’re likely to shut down the climate research bureau at NASA that Jim Hansen worked with. This is an enormous set back to human society. It’s an existential threat. The fact that at such a critical period when already the Obama administration had not done nearly enough to fulfil the things the scientists are saying we need do. There are predictions now that by hitting 2 degrees you create a tipping point that sends us on a trajectory that will take us by the end of the century to 4, 5, and even perhaps 6 degrees of warming. There have been some predictions that 4-5 degrees of warming could lead to a planet that only would support 10% of the existing global human population. It’s hard to know whether any of these models are exaggerated or not. They’re again, they’re models. But there is no question, I don’t think in terms of the scientific consensus that by mid century we will be around 2 degrees and by the end of the century we’ll have far surpassed that and that is cataclysmic. So why aren’t people up in arms. Why aren’t there mass demonstrations in the streets? How on earth could you have a presidential election whereby climate deniers win the presidency. Climate deniers win a majority of state legislatures, control both houses of congress. They’re going to control the Supreme Court. Well there’s a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the enormous amounts of money, people like the Koch brothers and Robert Mercer and others have put into climate denial. But corporate, perhaps number 1 is corporate owned news who barely cover the issue of climate change. According to one study in 2015, all the corporate news together, all the networks did 149 minutes of coverage on climate change. ABC did 13 minutes. Rolled into those minutes is FOX News and most of their climate change news which is counted in this total was actually part of the Koch brother doubt machine to create an idea that there’s not a scientific consensus on these issues. One survey found that 90% of Americans don’t know that 90% of scientists think that climate change is real and is caused by human activity. When asked, do you think this will seriously effect you and your family only 16% of Americans surveyed thought that it would seriously effect them. This is because of corporate media. It does not treat this with urgency. One can go into the reasons why they don’t and some of them are obvious. Look at who their advertisers are. You look at CNN. CNN runs more adds by the Koch brothers and promoting their companies than they do covering climate change. It’s even worse on some of the other networks that I mentioned. So what we think we need is a global climate change bureau that will do daily climate news on a scale to have impact and targeting a section of the American population that really need to hear this message that means we’re going to set up a pilot project in southern Pennsylvania in a working class area that voted for Trump and connect the issues because it’s rather clear that the solution to the climate change crisis is also the solution to the economic and inequality crisis. Sustainable green economy is the only way that we’re going to save the planet. But it’s also the only way we’re going to transform [people’s lives in terms of their daily struggle for survival and to better their well-being. So we want to create this global climate change bureau that will be based in our studios in Baltimore. It will have bureaus to begin with in Los Angeles, in London, and we expect one also in South Africa. We want to have a network of journalists and reporters in key places around the globe. We’re going to report on climate activism where people are demanding real change. We’re going to report on scientific work, especially focusing on the issue of urgency and of course there’s discussion and debate within the scientific community on this and our work will reflect this. And most importantly we’re going to focus on solutions. Where are there models of change that make sense? Where is there public policy that if it was brought to scale would make sense? We have a very, very short window now, heading into this Trump administration. A very short window to try to mitigate and institute enough public demand for public policy that will not just reduce carbon emission but build a sustainable green economy and we think daily video and other forms of news effect on all platforms whether it’s television or whether it’s the internet, whether it’s radio, whether it’s on mobile. With enough money to bring this to bare in terms of marketing money so that people actually see this and make real impact and we are going to learn how to talk to sections of the working class that don’t get the urgency of this and there’s a reason they don’t get it. They’re surrounded by media that never talks about it. So please help us build the Global Climate Change Bureau. If you’d like to send some money, send it now. We’re in the midst of a matching grant campaign, so every buck you give will be doubled. If you want to help us build this bureau, write and let us know you want to volunteer in various ways, both in terms of research, helping us suggest stories we should be covering, spreading the word. We need to do something on a massive scale and that’s our main objective in 2017. So please help us make Real News and help us make the Global Climate Change Bureau a reality.
End
DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
