The Silence on Climate Change Is Totally Unacceptable
Something odd and disturbing has happened on the issue of climate change in the last few years. Even as the crisis has gotten worse, and the need to address it more urgent, elected officials have been talking about it less. This month, Vox’s Kate Yoderobserves that “Democratic politicians who once talked about climate change as the defining crisis of our time now barely mention it at all” and “the phrase has begun disappearing from their speeches, social media posts, and podcast appearances.” (Republican politicians never pretended to care about it in the first place.) That includes some politicians who had previously been major climate advocates. And it’s not just among politicians. A recent Rockefeller Foundation report found “there has been a broad, persistent retreat in public language about climate,” with climate news coverage falling by nearly 40% and companies stopping discussing sustainability. Americans now “say they are hearing less about climate change in the news, on social media, and from people they know.”