Media failures on climate change
‘Arctic sea ice covered a smaller area last winter than in any winter since records began.’ Photograph: Alamy
George Monbiot doesn’t always get things right – I disagreed with his arguments urging Britons to vote “no” in the Brexit referendum, for instance. Yet he hits the proverbial bullseye more often than most commentators.
This recent column on media failures to communicate climate change is a belter, the most relevant paragraphs being the last couple, which are reproduced here:
Why should we trust multinational corporations to tell us the truth about multinational corporations? And if they cannot properly inform us about the power in which they are embedded, how can they properly inform us about anything?
If humanity fails to prevent climate breakdown, the industry that bears the greatest responsibility is not transport, farming, gas, oil or even coal. All of them can behave as they do, shunting us towards systemic collapse, only with a social licence to operate.
The problem begins with the industry that, wittingly or otherwise, grants them this licence: the one for which I work.
