On this edition of Your Call’s Media Roundtable, we're discussing the media’s role in educating the public about the effects of worsening climate change. On Wednesday, Hurricane Ian made landfall in SouthWest Florida with devastating winds and a storm surge uprooting trees and drowning roads and homes. Entire communities have been decimated. More than two million people are still without power.
Sea level along the southwest Florida coast is about a foot higher than is was 100 years ago, because of sea-level rise from human-caused climate change. This extra foot of sea level will substantially increase the storm surge damage from Ian, according to hurricane scientist Dr. Jeff Masters.
Covering Climate Now says getting political about Hurricane Ian is a journalistic responsibility. On a recent panel, CCN executive director Mark Hertsgaard pointed out that Florida Senator Marco Rubio voted against last year’s federal infrastructure bill, which included $47 billion to help communities prepare for flooding. Like all Senate Republicans, Rubio also voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which aims to slash heat-trapping emissions. Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has backed some efforts to adapt to extreme weather while rejecting measures to reduce emissions, which he characterized as “left-wing stuff.”
Guests:
Gabrielle Gurley, award winning journalist and senior editor of The American Prospect
Mark Hertsgaard, executive director of Covering Climate Now, environment correspondent of The Nation, and author of HOT: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth
Web Resources:
The Guardian: Hurricane Ian is no anomaly. The climate crisis is making storms more powerful
The Washington Post: How climate change is rapidly fueling super hurricanes
The Nation: The White House Wants a Climate Denier Out as World Bank President
The American Prospect: Florida, Texas Dial Up Their War on Immigrants
