Breaking News needs to cover work of Economy, Environment, and Ecclesia on climate change

The “breaking news” of the past week has included heat waves, flash floods, huge fires, severe drought, and record breaking temperatures. These events tragically contribute to large numbers of fatalities. The mitigation of the effects of these events costs large quantities of money. Certainly these events connect with our economy, environment and ecclesia.

A storm view

[intact] insurance, the largest provider of property and casualty insurance in Canada is a sponsor of the Centre on Climate Adaptation which is a University of Waterloo research centre. One of the economic concerns studied at the centre is mass migration due to inhospitable conditions: Canada is likely to be an attractive destination for climate refugees in the next few decades.

Emily Atkin writes in The New Republic about The Media’s Failure to Connect the Dots on Climate Change. She asks “Why are some major news outlets still covering extreme weather like it's an act of God?”

A record-breaking heat wave killed 65 people in Japan this week, just weeks after record flooding there killed more than 200. Record-breaking heat is also wreaking havoc in California, where the wildfire season is already worse than usual. In Greece, fast-moving fires have killed at least 80 people, and Sweden is struggling to contain more than 50 fires amid its worst drought in 74 years. Both countries have experienced all-time record-breaking temperatures this summer, as has most of the rest of the world.

Her article contains quotes from MSNBC host Chris Hayes on the effect of climate change reporting on ratings.

“almost without exception. every single time we've covered it's been a palpable ratings killer. so the incentives are not great”

Rafi Letzter, a staff writer at LiveScience, commented on the level of public disinterest in the topic.

Covering climate change, with few exceptions, is a traffic killer *for Live Science*, a website for people who like science. We do it anyway, and figure out how to squeeze water out of the rock. But the level of public disinterest in the subject is hard to overstate

Pope Francis suggests that we now consider some elements of an integral ecology, one which clearly respects its human and social dimensions in Chapter 4, Environmental, Economic and Social Ecology, of his encyclical letter “Laudato Si”.

138. Ecology studies the relationship between living organisms and the environment in which they develop. This necessarily entails reflection and debate about the conditions required for the life and survival of society, and the honesty needed to question certain models of development, production and consumption. It cannot be emphasized enough how everything is interconnected. Time and space are not independent of one another, and not even atoms or subatomic particles can be considered in isolation. Just as the different aspects of the planet – physical, chemical and biological – are interrelated, so too living species are part of a network which we will never fully explore and understand. A good part of our genetic code is shared by many living beings. It follows that the fragmentation of knowledge and the isolation of bits of information can actually become a form of ignorance, unless they are integrated into a broader vision of reality.

Economy, Environment, and Ecclesia form important overlapping roles in our efforts to prepare Canada for climate change...

Economy, Environment, and Ecclesia

migration and forming the ethical will to report the climate change effects and develop economic plans to address these drastic changes in our environment.

References

(n.d.). Climate Adaptation in Canada – Intact Centre | Home. Retrieved July 26, 2018, from https://www.intactcentreclimateadaptation.ca/

(2018, July 25). The Media's Failure to Connect the Dots on Climate Change | The .... Retrieved July 26, 2018, from https://newrepublic.com/article/150124/medias-failure-connect-dots-climate-change

(2015, May 24). Laudato si' (24 May 2015) - La Santa Sede. Retrieved July 26, 2018, from http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html