WTF?
What the fuck?
I’m sitting here reading yet another article about “blistering heat wave” expected — and I’m thinking, what the fuck is missing from the article? Right?
In case you’re wondering, and I wouldn’t blame you, the media has pretty much normalized “climate change” as in, this annoying ongoing thing that they occasionally have to report about. Climate change as a topic has moved to filler articles. Why are they doing this?
Throw in comments from the orange-rutabaga-in-chief and most people have mentally categorized climate change to buying things with green stickers.
This is bad. Climate change isn’t change, it’s chaos, anarchy. It’s mass migration of countries’ entire populations. It’s learning to shoot a gun, not because you’re a rabid gun rights person, because you have to. It’s putting a wall around your house with glass shards on top or moving to a gated apartment complex with security patrols. It’s hand pollinating your tomatoes and squash because gardening is no longer a hobby. It’s overwhelmed emergency rooms, far beyond COVID. It’s your previously reliable utilities scheduling rolling brownouts. It’s far right political factions grabbing control during economic turmoil. And people dying. Lots and lots of people dying, like billions of people. People dying from heat exposure. Dying from starvation. Dying because someone shot them trying to steal food. Dying because you shot them trying to steal your food.
Am I exaggerating? Put your critical thinking cap on and parse it out, don’t take my word for it. What happens when ⅓ of the planet is no longer habitable? Those people leave. What happens when the soil can no longer support agriculture? Famine and people starving. Sick people with nothing to lose.
Climate change, climate chaos, is the single most important issue there is.
And it’s not that far off. We’re talking 5–10 years. Maybe 2027 because of El Niño. Most news reporting talks about extreme climate change happening in a century. As if we’re all fine for now and suddenly in 100 years a switch gets pulled. This is one of the stupidest, most absurd constructs the media has adopted.
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If you’re 70 or older, you can stop worrying. You’ll likely be dead in time to avoid the really bad stuff. If you’re younger than 70, you are in for a bad time, even if you have money, even if you’re smart.
If you’re 50 or younger you’ll see the AMOC stop. AMOC is the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation current, the ocean currents that keep Europe from turning into an ice cube. What do you think those people living in Sweden are going to do? Hunker down? We’re talking -122° F (-50C)! People can’t live in -122°. Let me put another exclamation point! New England? Freezer land. You should move west (er no, I didn’t say that).
Can we stop global warming? No. We’re pretty much cooked. We can 𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦 some effects but in order to do that we need to focus on the enemy, make people aware of who or what to blame so we can make them stop.
What excuse does the media have for underreporting? Climate change, climate chaos, is the single most important issue there is. Everything else pales. When the media underreports the general public thinks it’s not a big deal. Why is the media underreporting?
Climate change is not just happening in a vacuum. We all know the mantra, burning fossil fuels, cutting down Amazon rainforest, animal agriculture. The media states, “Burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change,” and we all nod our heads and sagely think we should do something. We’re left with this amorphous blob of blame and nowhere to put it. Who or what exactly is burning fossil fuels? I drive an electric car, it ain’t me.
The media needs to start naming and shaming. Not, “Burning fossil fuels,” instead, “Exxon posted annual revenue in excess of $400 billion, oil and gas collectively posted $4 trillion. The top three major stockholders of Exxon are [ — ] and their collective worth is $388 million. Here is the link to writing your representatives.” Not, “Animal agriculture produces methane contributing to climate change,” instead, “Tyson Foods revenue for 2025 was over $50 billion, animal farming from Tyson is expected to exceed 480 million tons of carbon dioxide gases in 2026. The CEO of Tyson, Donnie King, made $34.47 million in 2025.” Name and shame.
You do know the federal government subsidizes the fossil fuel industry about $760 billion per year? Tax breaks, money giveaways, etc. Name and shame. Whatever happened to capitalism’s free market?
Why doesn’t the media report like this? Remember climate change is the single most important issue there is, so they 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 be reporting with bold, shouting headlines. Are journalists that irresponsible? No, not generally. For the most part media reporting is driven by what people want to hear. But when the folks that read newspapers, watch news, consume social media, when folks tune out, the media tunes out with them. Don’t tune out. If people start demanding accountability, start demanding our taxes stop funding this craziness, there’s a chance we can 𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦 social upheaval.
What can you do to mitigate climate anarchy? Start with demanding honest reporting. Seriously. There is so little else an individual can do, at least do this. Write a letter to the editor, ask them to put climate issues front and center. Start using real language, talk about the awfulness of billions dying, talk about how people will need to put a security fence around their yard, worry about driving out of their compound, hire private patrols, not get medical care. Bring the topic up in discussion, with your neighbors and friends, at lunch with coworkers. Push through the uncomfortableness and get people thinking about the reality coming our way because climate change is the single most important issue there is.
My mom died from COPD. She smoked until she needed permanent oxygen. Could not walk ten feet without wheezing. She was miserable. I remember when I was a kid, she would describe her conversation with her doctor, “Ann, smoking is going to kill you.” My mom, “Eh, let it kill me!” In one of her particularly bad hospital emergency visits, looking about as miserable as a human can look, she turned to me and said, “Why didn’t they tell me it was going to be this way?” I realized then the disconnect. She thought one day she would just keel over and that would be it. Climate change is the same thing. We’re all sitting here thinking we’ll just turn up the AC and maybe pay a bit more for electricity, get an extra cord of wood delivered in the fall. Nope. We will not die peacefully in our sleep.
