Does Media Care More About Royal Babies Than Mass Extinction?
Analyses show that a shocking United Nations report was eclipsed by news the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had their first child.
Archie Harrison Mountbatten Windsor's arrival was thoroughly covered by the same media outlets that mostly ignore the climate crisis. (Screen shot / YouTube)
As many as 1 million of the estimated 8 million plant and animal species on Earth are at risk of extinction — many of them within decades — according to the scientists and researchers behind a new UN report. The assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is the most comprehensive review to date of the damage humans are causing to biodiversity. The group’s chair, Robert Watson, says:
The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.
Nevertheless, a survey by German newspaper Deutsche Welle (5/22/19) found that the report and its grave implications didn’t get the front-page stories you might expect for news of this import, and they suggest, sadly, that that has to do with the fact that the assessment was released on the same day that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had their first child. Their findings match those of US group Media Matters (5/21/19), which noted that ABC News, for one, gave more time to the royal baby’s birth in the week he was born than to all stories about the climate crisis in all of 2018.
The UN report calls on policymakers to take immediate concrete action to protect nature—sustainable agricultural practices, equitable water management, renewable energy sources and more. It’s beyond shameful that among the obstacles such crucial efforts face, corporate media’s disinterest looms large.
Your support matters…Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
Book Review
A new book argues that many animals we find loathsome are often made so because of our own actions.
As climate change decimates our fauna, we must remember that the loss of our fellow species will harm us directly, too.
Activists, actors and politicians defy tradition and work to prohibit cruelty to animals.
We have a finite amount of time left to coexist with large parts of the biosphere, including thousands of species of plants and animals.
Something’s going on in the natural world that may prove more devastating than a mass of species extinctions, and it's our job to address it.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.