It is truly amazing how the media just can’t seem to connect the dots on climate change – even when the evidence is staring them right in the face.
The NY Times ran a page one story today on the southern pine beetle infestation of pinelands forests – another example of global warming and climate change, see: In New Jersey Pines, Trouble Arrives on Six Legs.
The NY Times story closely follows what I’ve been writing here for months, on both the “forest stewardship” legislation and climate change, see: Will Climate Change Destroy The Pinelands?
But, in a critical oversight, the NYT story failed to mention the current climate gorilla in the Pines – a proposed 22 mile gas pipeline to carry 20 billion cubic feet of gas to repower the BL England plant, creating well over 1 million tons of new greenhouse gas emissions at a time when we need to make deep emissions reductions to prevent catastrophic warming.
Or the fact that the Pinelands Commission’s review of the proposed new gas pipeline and the repowering of the BL England plant did not even consider climate change impacts or ecological impacts on the pinelands.
It is insane to be building more fossil infrastructure when we are on the verge of irreversible catastrophic warming and we need to make massive investments in efficiency & renewables and deep cuts in GHG emissions.
In another case of journalistic malpractice, NJ Spotlight finally jumped into the fray and covered the pipeline debate, see: PROPOSED NATURAL GAS PIPELINE WOULD CUT THROUGH PINELANDS
Amazing, that NJ Spotlight also ignored the most pressing climate issues as well – all while selectively excerpting supportive text from the MOA and suggesting that this project was no big deal and opponents’ criticism misguided, given the Commission’s claim of no impacts on the Pinelands and that there are other larger projects (all of which environmentalists have opposed).
The NY Times wrote a forestry story. NJ Spotlight wrote an energy story.
And we’re all a little less informed and less effective as citizens after reading them.
And that is truly a shame.