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STATE OF NATURE

Interest in the Environment Is in Decline

So much so, the New York Times has shut down its environmental desk

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by Dain Fitzgerald

Staff Writer t

Image: nakedlaw.avvo.com

Environmental reporting, and interest in environmental reporting, appears to be on the wane, reports Discover's Keith Kloor.

Kloor observes that not only has concern for the environment among the world's citizenry declined in recent years, so too has reporting on the Earth's condition, as evidenced by the New York Times shuttering its "environmental desk" (as well as this peek at Google trends).

So what gives? Kloor thinks it's got something to do with enviro-reporting's "perception problem." Namely the perception that journalists on the nature beat have a feral dog in the fight. He quotes veteran environmental reporter Bud Ward, who tackles the charge that folks such as him are "greens with press passes":

Reporters covering the environmental beat often are seen not as environmental reporters but as environmentalist reporters. This perception has become an occupational hazard. Especially frustrating to many is that this view often persists in the newsroom itself, not just outside of it. Being labeled a 'green reporter' by a newsroom colleague is for many an insult.

Kloor adds that the "gloom and doom" narrative of environment-related reporting doesn't help:

"Might this endless (and often simplistic) tragic narrative be wearing out the public and wearing thin in newsrooms?"

Via Discover.
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What do you think accounts for declining public interest in the environment?

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • o
    Sabio
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    the earth will be here a lot longer than we will, so people are more concerned about, hmmm, i dont know, where they will live next week, how they will put food on the table next month, whether they will have a job tomorrow, you know, those quirky little issues!
  • u
    JohnFLob
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    I for one expect to be living in the same place next week as I am this week and the several years before. AS to where I will get my family's food a significant portion of it will come from my backyard garden and the food from last year that we preserved. Employment matters are not primarily affected by the climate.
  • jessejaymes
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    @stepped_in_it The idiots who always say "I hope California disappears" don't even realize that 30 states would still be driving on dirt roads without California, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinios and two states I forget weren't paying for their state budgets through our federal taxes. I just don't get it. But they'll be cheering for a minute if Cali does slide off. We've become a nation of idiots.
  • stepped_in_it
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    @jessejaymes "they'll be cheering for a minute if Cali does slide off'.....but only for a minute. The tsunami from that slide would effectively end the world as we know it!
    "It's the end of the world as we know it" "and I feel fine"
  • o
    hertz_doughnut
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    They had to shut down the environmental desk do to the mountain of trash generated by Bloomberg's small soda policy. Smaller drinks mean more garbage per ounce of soda purchased. They do not care for you or the environment they only care about having power and control over your daily decisions and lives.
  • u
    JohnFLob
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    @jessejaymes The problems we have with California, Illinois, and New York is that they are paying their state budgets with OUR federal taxes.
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    @Food4thoughts - How are you going to answer a question with a question? I'm asking you what is the right wing's disinformation that they are spreading?

  • View all 26 replies >

  • stepped_in_it
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    Nah,,,,can't be "the people". Just look how good Chicago, LA, NY, Detroit.....etc look! Pristine as the day Mother Earth was formed! Heck, the oceans are so blue you could walk across them! Forests so vast you can now see both ends of it! People, the newest cockroach of the Earth!
  • GuyFawkes
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    IMO, we need a more balanced approach as opposed to 'the sky is falling' global warmers on the one side, and 'what sky? There's a sky?' anti-global warmers on the other side.
    We have but one environment. We all want our children to breath fresh air and drink clean water, and there does seem to be evidence supporting the melting of polar ice caps, indicating global warming. We need fresh voices to help ferret out the static. No more Al Gore lecturing us on the evils of fossil fuels (and winning a Nobel. Yikes) only to then make half a $billion by selling out to Al Jazeera and the fossil fuel industry. Hypocrites!
  • u
    Litdes
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    There was a period when the EPA was quite effective, and corrected a lot of vital problems. Likke much of the Great Lakes pollution. Do you remember when the Cayahoga River caught fire with some regularity. The problem is, most Americans aren't aware of these strides, and don't remember the wrongs of industry seeking to save a buck (e.g. GE dumping PCBs in the Hudson & Housatonic rivers).

    Sadly, big business and their bigger lobby have largely stripped the EPA of IRS ability to properly regulate. How long do you think it would take for industry to return to their old practices of putting the bottom line before all else?
  • marine1
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    It makes no sense to drive polution from the United States to China or Mexico and then allow that same product to be returned to the US in exchange for our not so poluted dollars.The people causing our jobs to be driven out of country are nothing more than environmental pimps.
  • o
    NTBFW
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    I think the perception of going green has been that of environmental whacko's screaming the sky is falling the sky is falling. And they have gotten so fanatical that it hard to take them serious. Having Al Gore as a spokesman didn't help either. I don't believe Al Gore about anything. Why should I buy an expensive car I don't like while he lectures me then gets on a private jet and flys away. Then there is the fact that most scientist that warn us of global warming are very left wing politically and anyone that questions their findings are blasted by denier claims. In other words they over stated their case.
  • Zazziness
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    Your statement is fact-challenged. Al Gore is not the spokesman. He made a movie about it. Judging the validity of a subject by who made a movie about it is not sound judgment. The scientists who are warning about it are not "leftists." They are the vast majority of world scientists. This is not a political issue, though what to do about it has been made into one. I gave you a million links on this subject and this post shows you read *none* of them. Therefore, denier, if the shoe fits, wear it.
  • o
    NTBFW
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    @Zazziness you missed the word PERCEPTION in my statement. That's my perception. They asked I answered if they want to change the perception then they should understand why I hear white noise when they talk. Not lecture me about details that I seriously don't trust the source.
  • Zazziness
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    @NTBFW Ever hear of personal responsibility? That's where you read and research and gather facts rather than going on "truthiness" or "perception" or "a dart board." It works well.
  • o
    NTBFW
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    @Zazziness from what I can see you are over reacting about it all I take care of my own business just fine. Try that for a change.

  • View all 6 replies >

  • stepped_in_it
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    HMMM.....only if those "kids" have 10 toes, 2 eyes and don't require way too many surgeries to correct birth defects! That alone just might get your attention, but, only if you can make the connection!
  • TheJimmy
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    @stepped_in_it I'll leave the worrying to folks like yourself because I'm not the least bit concerned about human defects.
  • u
    ErnestPayne
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    The New York Times has long outlived its reputation for quality journalism. It is unable to compete either in print or internet journalism. By the time the news gets to the NYT it is no longer news. As for interest in the environment it is solid except amongst the dimwits unable to comprehend the situation. I doubt any in here get the Science Daily emails.
  • stepped_in_it
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    Rivers polluted and burning. Rain forests disappearing. Major animal extinction. No way mankind can ever "destroy the environment".....<face in palms>
  • Quantummist
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    Simple.... The actual important issues of clean water, regulating those individual issues where there is actual pollution of the environmnt that can be improved has be lumped together with a Political Hoax of Man Made Global Warming and Green Energy which are both being used for Political Purpose and are easily shown to be total failures ... So when Man Made Global Warming and Green Energy scams are seen as hoaxes the actual good that can be done to clean up dumps and waste sites is also kicked to the curb....
  • Zazziness
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    Really? Hundreds of links that explain global climate change to layman. Thousands of scientific articles in peer reviewed journals. NASA, The Union of Concerned Scientists, The Smithsonian, The United Nations... for God's sake --- George W Bush -- all confirm that our climate is changing and that man's waste products are at the heart of it.
    May I ask what the heck it would take to get it through to you that only a few crackpots and paid oil company lobbyists still try to claim there is any question about it being a real situation we are all facing?(And even the oil companies are starting to give it up because even they can't lie forever.) What. Does. It. Take?
  • Quantummist
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    @Zazziness ... Yes Really... 100's of links explaining how it's Bunk. thousands of articles and statements from scientist stating it's a con game to get funding and make fortunes off the Unscientific that fall for the con game ....

    No one, Not Even Me has ever said the climate is not changing... But man has Absolutely Nothing to do with it nor could he do anything about it if he tried... You have fallen for the Religion.. and that's all it is...

    Simple ... Give specific data, specific evidence that stands up to Verification and Repetition by anyone attempting to debunk it that CO2 Rise leads Global Temp Rise.... Not Claims, Not Models, Not invented evidence....

    Conscience (Con-Science) is the Bane of Real Science... There was Consciences the earth was the center of the universe... There has been Conscience that Civilization started about 6,000 years ago.... If science followed Conscience the Wright Brothers would have never built an airplane... You follow your Priests that live in luxury by the tithing they receive while they fly private jets to lavish get together in Geneva and Cabo to dine on fine wine and cheese while poor people around the world burn cow dung to heat their meals and I will listen to the 1000's of scientists that have shown the religion Bunk....
  • Quantummist
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    @Penn1699 .. What's so frustrating is that the vast majority of those that have fallen for the Environmental Religion use the exact same tactics as other biblical religious zealots use to defend their religion.

    It's a matter if not questioning the claims... Science is suppose to question any claim, cut the claim to shreds, even if the claim holds for decades Real Science never stops attempting to shred the claim and a single piece of evidence that debunks the claims is suppose to be given weight and openly debated without bias... What we see from those that take the view Zanny takes is Religious in nature, they have Faith, They Believe... Any evidence or argument that goes to the heart of their faith is considered blasphemy... Those that make such argument, sinners to be excommunicated from the church...

    When it's very simple... Climate has changed on this planet long before man started his first campfire... Ice Core records show CO2 has always when up when the global temps have risen, and CO2 has always gone down when global temps have fallen, Before Man made fire.... Humans produce .02 percent of so called Green House gases... And the Clincher for me is that the past record of Man Made Global gloom and doom that have been made in my lifetime, and I'm old, have never been correct....

    Heck even the IPCC's own Climate scientist Tom Tripp said “We're not scientifically there yet. Despite what you may have heard in the media, there is nothing like a consensus of scientific opinion that this is a problem. Because there is natural variability in the weather, you cannot statistically know for another 150 years.”

    But Believer's Believe it's the hallmark of religion.....
  • Zazziness
    !
    I used to love nature documentaries even those that didn't hide the fact only a few of the cute young critters are going to grow up instead of being hawk chow. But it's been quite awhile since I could bear to watch one because they always end: "Of course, we've been filming three of the last twelve __________ in the wild. They are projected to be extinct except in captivity within the next few years."
    This will be a lesser world without tigers.
  • stepped_in_it
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    And the need for poaching these creatures? So some a-hole can feel better if his willy goes wild! Save the animals, ban the willy's!
  • Zazziness
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    @stepped_in_it It kills me, it really does. A major extinction event only takes place every few million years or so. There are times I am very sad that I managed to get born in one.
  • Zazziness
    !
    @stepped_in_it A major extinction event. There are rare periods when the majority of species go extinct and those left eventually evolve and differentiate and refill new niches. But knowing in two hundred thousand years, there will be new creatures walking the Earth does not make me less sad the elephants are going now.
  • o
    NTBFW
    !
    @Zazziness I hate poachers and I won't hunt big game in Africa. But at home we have restored black bear , elk and turkey back to levels that they can be hunted again. A huge success for wildlife.
  • zachsquatch
    !
    I believe in climate change and I believe in being good stewards of the environment, but I won't invest in green scams and the forced guilt of human caused climate change. The climate has changed without us here, it will with us here and if the earth decides to just shake off it's ozone layer and roast us to death, there is not a damn thing we can do about it.
  • Post Removed by Moderators
  • u
    Cheenoguy
    !
    It's not the earth that's in trouble
    It's the people who live on it
    The earth will be here long after
    We've all gone the way of the dodo
    -The Streets-
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