Dear Journalists of Canada: Start Reporting Climate Change as an Emergency

On May 6, the United Nations released a scientific report warning that around a million species are threatened with extinction due to human activity, including climate change. But, according to an analysis by Media Matters for America, on the day of that release, the nightly newscasts of ABC and NBC felt it was more important that their audiences learned about the birth of the newest royal baby — someone who will likely never have any say over their day-to-day lives. And I’ve found most of Canada’s 15 most-read English language daily broadsheets felt the same way.

Few media stories mentioned the demonstrable connection
between the climate crisis and increasing wildfire activity in
BC last summer, even though it was one of the major reasons
why that season was the worst on record.

Between May 6 and 7, 13 of those newspapers failed to front stories about the United Nations’ devastating finding. Instead, the National Post ran a story about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son, with 10 others teasing that birth on their front pages. Eight of the teasers were placed above-the-fold, next to a photograph, or both — drawing reader attention to pictures of Harry, Meghan and their beaming well-wishers.

Read the story from The Tyee by Sean Holman - “Dear Journalists of Canada: Start Reporting Climate Change as an Emergency.”