Bay Nature has joined “Covering Climate Now,” a global collaboration of more than 250 media outlets this week to boost coverage of climate change. As organizers Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review, this is “the defining story of our time.”
As so many people around the world have, Northern Californians have seen this story hit home already. Record wildfires, an unprecedented three-year drought, starving marine mammals and the disappearance of salmon and abalone, triple-digit heat waves in cities where no one has air conditioning, winter floods, disappearing beaches — all have some scientifically demonstrated link to human-generated emissions. Climate change is clearly here, now.
We’re also aware that two-thirds of Americans say they believe global warming is caused by human activities, far more than believe in evolution. The number of Americans who say “dealing with climate change” should be a top priority of the president and Congress has increased by 14 percent over the last 10 years, to 44 percent. Fifty-nine percent of Americans say they see evidence of climate change where they live; 67 percent say the federal government isn’t doing enough to reduce its effects. So at Bay Nature, we think it’s not just enough to tell you that climate change is happening. You know that already. You’ve seen that already.
We’re focusing this week on connecting the climate story to the places you live, work, and explore. We want to go into specifics, and show the ways people are already acting locally on climate. We want to show the cutting edge of research, to highlight new problems while focusing on action.
Every day this week, we’ll post one new climate story and three climate-focused pieces from our archive, spanning natural histories, terrains and time periods. Bookmark baynature.org to read them all.
Finally: we’re joining collaborations like this because we’re trying to get the word out about our journalism. If you value what we’re doing, you can help. Share our stories on social media, sign up for our newsletter, subscribe to our print magazine, and tell your friends about Bay Nature. Or, if you can, chip in a few dollars today to help fund more of our unique coverage of science, nature, and the environment in Northern California.
