One of the best pieces of news recently for those concerned about life on Earth was the agreement reached on carbon emissions in Paris in December. Although this is an El Nino year and there was anticipation of unusual weather – not to mention sky-high temperatures – many scientists believe that the stronger than usual effects this winter were, at least in part, being driven by climate change.

Governments may soon be compelled to take further action, including actual enforcement measures, whether they are prepared to make these necessary changes or not. As reported widely in the alternative media, researchers at the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH) recently concluded that February set a new record in terms of global temperature increase, slightly above the month before, which itself set the previous record. Other satellite data revealed that the level of carbon dioxide in the air early last month was the highest it has been in 15 million years, and that the world’s oceans are rising at “a rate not seen since the last Ice Age – and it is accelerating.”

However, this steady stream of climate news hasn’t moved mainstream media sources to increase their coverage of the subject. As reported by Media Matters, “ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox collectively spent five percent less time covering climate change in 2015, even though there were more newsworthy climate-related events than ever before.” While less egregious, major print media haven’t been much better, usually burying climate stories on their back pages when they find the space to cover them at all.

Fracking and Other Hazards

But environmental issues aren't just on the gargantuan scale of climate change: they're local, too, and affecting the quality of life of millions of people today. Just ask the citizens of Flint, Michigan, many of whom were poisoned from the lead in the water that they were drinking. And they're not alone. Yet strangely, in California, a state suffering a years-long drought, Los Angeles has seen a boom in oil and gas exploration, especially fracking – posing extreme risks to residents' health.

As reported by the Los Angeles Times, “about 1.7 million people in Los Angeles live or work within one mile of an active oil or gas well, and atmospheric concentrations of pollutants near those sites ‘can present risks to human health’.” The same report notes that the California Council on Science and Technology recently concluded that due to a lack of enough significant research, agencies in charge of regulating the practice of fracking simply don’t know what the energy companies are doing, making enforcement impossible.

With the price of oil tumbling, one might expect to see fracking – an extremely expensive, water intensive and chemically hazardous process for accessing untapped natural gas deposits – would draw to an end. Yet, paradoxically, when it comes to heavily subsidized energy projects, fracking still stands atop the list.

Climate Change, Chemicals and Food

Another big issue facing citizens of all countries, rich and poor, is the question of the food supply in a warming world. Take this recent study reported by the Independent, based on research in the journal Nature Plants, which showed that organic farming will become much more sustainable as global warming decreases the yields from chemically treated crops. Contrary to what industry shills have been tellings consumers for more than half a century, if soil-depleting crops are rotated, organic farming results in much better yields, especially during droughts.

But despite this news and other reports like it, consolidation within the chemical industry is creating an even greater lack of accountability for these massive corporations. Last November, two of the largest, Dow Chemical and Dupont, announced a plan to merge, which seems likely to go through sometime this year. It also appears that European giant Syngenta is looking at merger offers from both U.S.-based Monsanto and ChemChina. Regardless of which company winds up with the prize, farmers and the environment are likely to pay a high price.

Once again, it was left to Bernie Sanders alone to bring up the seriousness of global warming at the CNN debate held in Flint on March 6. He along with the largely ignored Green Party candidate Jill Stein are more or less alone in addressing the climate crisis in an electoral season that has been hijacked by the ridiculous antics of Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican field. Even more disheartening were Hillary Clinton’s evasions on fracking at the same debate.

With the media clamoring for more verbal jousting, it seems likely that environmental issues will continue to be ignored by media and politicians alike in the U.S. And it seems little consolation that some day, not so far in the future, activists will be able to say “I told you so” to all those who downplayed or denied the existence of global warming. When that day comes, those who fought so long to bring these issues to the public’s attention won’t be immune to the consequences.

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