Global Warming Is a Human Rights Issue

Today's topic is global warming. The article is titled "Global Warming is Human Rights Issue - Nobel Nominee". Where do I begin?

Our average citizens obtain knowledge and information from media. Free newspapers distributed at public transit stations reach far more readers than many other forms of media. All mainstream newspapers, free or not, rely heavily on advertisers. Financial sponsors tend to avoid being associated with publications that produce controversial contents. As a result, mainstream news journalists detach themselves from controversial or deviant issues. They have to please their money trees. They cannot piss off politicians and gas/oil industries. Lawsuits cost a lot, and newspapers aren't wealthy. At the end, they tend to quote the "elites", who make statements only to serve their personal interests. Threatened by the powerful normative values, mainstream journalists neither take a stand on any side nor quote anyone who might get themselves in trouble. Due to all these commercial and economic imperatives, mainstream news coverage shows little bias and gradually become known as "objective". The notion of "journalistic objectivity" is dangerous in my opinion. Let's take global warming as an example. An objective journalist would tell the readers who says this and who says that but rarely ever clarify whether or not global warming is happening. The readers are left with even more questions, not knowing what is accurate and what isn't. Of course, in many cases, the journalists would avoid implying that global warming is happening, so the politicians would not lose votes and the oil/gas industry would not lose profits. Since they are the "elites", journalists quote them. People who are really suffering from global warming don't get to be quoted. This bad cycle comes around and around. Citizens eventually believe that global warming is not happening.

The practice of journalistic objectivity has been around for more than a century ("straight reporting" emerged around nineteenth century). Some independent newspapers and magazines begin to show their faces recently but they are not widely distributed. Few people know about them. Their agendas are much more different. They usually never take advertisements. Money is not their concern. Their journalists aim to provide accurate information and advocate certain moral/social issues. I wish more people read these publications. Perhaps they would have better understanding of global warming and how it is related to human rights.

We don't live in a place where we literally have to hunt on ice. We don't experience any risk of drowning on melting ice. Many people treat stories like these as fictions. Mainstream journalists are the ones to blame. We need more counter-hegemony social movements to start off with. In times, maybe global warming will be stopped.