Climate Change Is Not A Punishment Of God

Climate change is a multi-faceted issue. It's an ecological catastrophe, but it's also an issue to be studied from the fields of economy, politics, journalism, and many others. But there's one angle that comes up in every single reasonable reading, from any point of view: Climate change is an extremely unfair process — those who contribute least to it suffer its worst consequences. From my point of view, that's how it should always be reported, be it in ROAR Magazine or the Financial Times.

Here's one example of deceivingly good reporting from that point of view. The New York Times brings us another excellent story from the arid plains of the Horn of Africa. 

The headline speaks volumes already. People who were already hungry, living in a dry and hot place, are just facing death like never before:

[...] a people long hounded by poverty and strife has found itself on the frontline of a new crisis: climate change. More than 650,000 children under age 5 across vast stretches of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia are severely malnourished.

The story has all the elements of great classic journalism: human stories, expert commentaries, an approximate idea of the big picture, engaging style and striking photos (special mention to the woman literally digging up water).

However, this story, as with many others, presents climate change as something to which people have to adapt, putting an excessive focus on the adaptation efforts. A punishment of God we have to endure.

And it's not that these are not important, but it's only half the story. The New York Times will be read all over the planet. We, the New York Times readers, are the ones who profit from the system that makes climate change.

Don't present climate change as a punishment of God. It's not God.

It's us.

Today, the EU Parliament approved the list of "Projects of Common Interest", including 53 huge fossil fuel projects.