The Media Are Complacent While the World Burns.

Last summer, during the deadliest wildfire season in California’s history, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes got into a revealing Twitter discussion about why US television doesn’t much cover climate change. Elon Green, an editor at Longform, had tweeted, “Sure would be nice if our news networks—the only outlets that can force change in this country—would cover it with commensurate urgency.” Hayes (who is an editor at large for The Nation) replied that his program had tried. Which was true: In 2016, All In With Chris Hayes spent an entire week highlighting the impact of climate change in the US as part of a look at the issues that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were ignoring. The problem, Hayes tweeted, was that “every single time we’ve covered [climate change] it’s been a palpable ratings killer. So the incentives are not great.”

(Illustration by Doug Chayka)

The Twittersphere pounced. “TV used to be obligated to put on programming for the public good even if it didn’t get good ratings. What happened to that?” asked @JThomasAlbert. @GalJaya said, “Your ‘ratings killer’ argument against covering #climatechange is the reverse of that used during the 2016 primary when corporate media justified gifting Trump $5 billion in free air time because ‘it was good for ratings,’ with disastrous results for the nation.”

When @mikebaird17 urged Hayes to invite Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University, one of the best climate-science communicators around, onto his show, she tweeted that All In had canceled on her twice—once when “I was literally in the studio w[ith] the earpiece in my ear”—and so she wouldn’t waste any more time on it.

Read the story from The Nation by Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope - “The Media Are Complacent While the World Burns.”

2018’s Hemispheric Heat Wave Wasn't Possible Without Climate Change, Scientists Say

As temperatures spiked across a large part of the Northern Hemisphere last summer, I got an alarming call from my mother, who was living in Linz, Austria. She was dizzy and disoriented, and she hadn't been sleeping.

Eduardo Velev cools off in the spray of a fire hydrant in
Philadelphia during a July 2018 heat wave. Scientists say
 last summer's extreme heat across the Northern Hemisphere
 wouldn’t have happened without human-induced climate change.

The region had been suffering through several weeks of above average day and nighttime temperatures, and when I arrived, her apartment building felt like a concrete oven. Her symptoms sounded like heat exhaustion.

We helped her pack a bag, checked on an elderly neighbor with similar symptoms, and then left the sweltering city for a mountain lake like we were first-world climate refugees.

A study presented this week at a scientific conference in Vienna now shows that last summer's extreme heat was an "unprecedented" hemispheric event that would not have happened without heat-trapping greenhouse gas pollution, the researchers said, and that it lasted longer and was more widespread across the Northern Hemisphere than previously realized.

Read the story from Inside Climate News by Bob Berwyn - “2018’s Hemispheric Heat Wave Wasn't Possible Without Climate Change, Scientists Say.”

Costly backup power saved east coast from blackouts, AEMO reports say

The east coast of Australia avoided a blackout last summer because companies cut their power usage at critical times, with the operator of the electricity network now calling for more control over the way large companies use power during future heatwaves.

A heatwave pushed the electricity network to its limits,
with blackout only avoided by triggering the RERT.

Two reports released by the Australian Energy Market Operator on Wednesday show the regulator believes there would have been blackouts last summer in South Australia and Victoria but was saved by triggering backup power mechanism called the Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader (RERT).

Read Cole Latimer’s story from The Age - “Costly backup power saved east coast from blackouts, AEMO reports say.”

Urban heat islands can be deadly, and they’re only getting hotter

If heat is the enemy, Marcela Herrera thought she was ready for battle last summer at her family’s north Los Angeles apartment.

The worsening problems of urban heat islands.

Old air conditioner units chugged away on windows in three rooms. Extension cords snaked into box fans on the floor, positioned along a hallway to push cooler air towards warmer spots. Bamboo shades, bent blinds and curtains beat back the sun.

But none of that prevented her eldest son, Edwin Díaz, from getting a nosebleed each time a heat wave crested over the family’s dense working-class neighborhood. And as outdoor temperatures climbed into the 90s, the 17-year-old suffered painful, debilitating migraines. The family doctor recommended that he try to stay cooler for the sake of his health.

Read Molly Peterson’s story on Wired - “Urban heat islands can be deadly, and they’re only getting hotter.”