Global Warming Compared to Y2K, the “Killer African Bee Scare”

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WVII and WFVX, two local TV stations in Bangor, Maine, will no longer cover stories on global warming. The general manager of the station, Michael Palmer, declared that only when “Bar Harbor is underwater…” will they do stories on the subject. Sounds like a good philosophy, right? In an email to his staff, Palmer wrote that the stations will no longer cover global warming because:

“a) we do local news, b) the issue evolved from hard science into hard politics and c) despite what you may have heard from the mainstream media, this science is far from conclusive.”

But won’t it be local news when Bar Harbor is underwater? Maybe Palmer should read the latest issue of Mother Jones, where Julia Whitty talks about 12 tipping points in the global ecosystem triggered by global warming, all of which have local impacts. Plus, he can add to his reading list the Mother Jones article last year which broke the story on ExxonMobil’s funding of climate change deniers, the ones who agree with him that the “science is far from conclusive.” Palmer went on to write that “global warming stories [are] in the same category as ‘the killer African bee scare’ from the 1970s or, more recently, the Y2K scare when everyone’s computer was going to self-destruct.” A little extra reading defininitely can’t hurt.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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