Robert Delaney

On Balance | Why isn’t climate crisis dominating the news cycle?

In the midst of viral social media trends and appeals to populism, it’s far too easy to ignore the deadly consequences of global warming

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A former resident of an indigenous island town in Panama makes his way to new housing constructed by the government on the mainland due to rising sea levels. Photo: EPA-EFE

Robert Delaney

Published: 4:30pm, 10 Jun 2024Updated: 5:15pm, 10 Jun 2024

If you’re not living in a part of the world where extreme heat has turned deadly in the past few weeks, you should have at least seen the headlines. Many, though, are not seeing the headlines as much as ignoring them, which becomes more difficult each year.

Last year was the hottest on record, and researchers are saying this year could surpass that. With this in mind, we should stop referring to disastrous climate scenarios as potential threats and acknowledge that we’re already experiencing the crisis scientists have been warning about for decades.

But those most invested in the burning of fossil fuels, like ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, continue to use language that tends to make us think otherwise, and thus willing to ignore any evidence that’s not straining our power grids or washing our homes away.

He pledged in a speech last year to find solutions to “the very real threat of climate change”, which is akin to warning the Ukrainian government of the very real threat of a Russian military invasion after the tanks started rolling in.

As the evidence piles up, media outlets not taking the “Don’t Look Up” approach keep churning out the facts, but it seems we can’t scroll away quickly enough.

The New York Times recently quoted Dr John Balbus, deputy assistant secretary for climate change and health equity in the US Health and Human Services Department, as saying that a surge in heat-related deaths is now the greatest threat to human health posed by climate change.