champagne new year

On to 2021. And not a moment too soon.

Here's hoping the new year brings the climate change coverage we need.

Here in Georgia, 2021 begins on January 5, because we won't find out until then who our two U.S. Senators are.


Come to think of it, the U.S. won't know who controls our Senate until then. So America ends the detestable year 2020 by filing an incomplete. Not to mention the quadrennial one-day bonus for leap year.

Here are a few wishes that I'd like to see fulfilled in 2021. I'm not holding my breath. But maybe, just maybe the American media will fully recognize the climate crisis.

Al Roker, who reportedly earns $10 million and has won seven Daytime Emmy Awards for weather casts on NBC networks, to be cut loose to focus more on how climate change will haunt the entire 21st Century the way COVID-19 has for the past year (he does a good job when permitted to do so).

More network correspondents like ABC's Clayton Sandell who report regularly on climate politics and the links between climate change and extreme weather or wildfire events. We have breaking news as we come on the air: ABC laid Sandell off last month. Joyeux Noël, Clayton! And certainly not a good signal that climate change is a good topic to build a network career on.

I'd like to see more of CBS News's Scott Pelley, who did a thorough 60 Minutes segment this year, possibly even better than the one previous he did in 2006. Maybe it becomes a more regular feature.

More superb storytellers like CNN's Bill Weir, whose role as "Chief Climate Correspondent" wrongly suggests he's not the only climate correspondent (pretty much anywhere on US news nets, not just CNN).

And a slightly different wish, have you seen the API ads that flood the Sunday morning cable and broadcast talkshows about all their members doing to lower carbon emissions? That's not the Application Programming Interface(s) that help drive your social media. Rather it's the American Petroleum Institute. I'd love to know more about those ads, and similar ones from API members like ExxonMobil and Shell US. Like how much money do local and national broadcasters and websites make from airing falsehoods like these?

There are scores of journalists at dying newspapers who have been tossed on the layoff wagon because they're on a low priority beat that's often criticized as biased, incorrect, or both. Even if their beat -- climate and environment -- gets vindicated on a daily basis by both predictive science and on-the-ground fact.

Tragically, that beat looks smarter every year. Cheers.

Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist and can be reached at pdykstra@ehn.org or @pdykstra.

His views do not necessarily represent those of Environmental Health News, The Daily Climate or publisher, Environmental Health Sciences.

Banner photo credit: Al404/flickr

Yellow and white wind turbine towers waiting to be installed
Credit: Engineered Solutions/Unsplash

Trump leaves wind industry reeling — at a perilous moment for his party

Republican worries about energy affordability didn’t deter the administration from halting five major projects that had already begun construction.
US President Donald Trump with American & Ukrainian flags behind
Credit: Copyright: palinchak/ BigStock Photo ID: 205623106

Opinion: Trump’s shuttering of the National Center for Atmospheric Research is Stalinist: Michael Mann and Bob Ward

This is the latest in the relentless purge of climate researchers who refuse to be co-opted by the fossil fuel industry.

aerial photography of tanker ship.

Oil, gold and rare earth elements: the backdrop to US political tension with Venezuela

The country’s enormous energy and mineral resources are consolidating as a key factor in the geopolitical dispute and in Venezuela’s institutional collapse.

an aerial view of a data center flanked by trees, roads and green fields.
Credit: Geoffrey Moffett/Unsplash

The Pentagon and A.I. giants have a weakness. Both need China’s batteries, badly.

As warfare is reinvented in Ukraine, and Silicon Valley races to maintain its A.I. lead, China’s battery dominance is raising alarms far beyond the auto industry.
A row of diesel-powered generators outside of an industrial building
Photo by Abhijeet Gaikwad on Unsplash

Electrifying these factories could cut a gigaton of CO2 pollution

The U.S. industrial sector relies on gas-fired boilers to make heat. A new report shows how manufacturers can electrify and decarbonize, starting now.
off shore wind farm against setting sun
Credit: Alexander MilsFor Unsplash+

‘Bonkers’: DOI letter halts all five in-progress offshore wind farms

Construction will be paused for 90 days as Trump's Department of War and Interior Department coordinate to evaluate supposed "national security" risks.
Overhead view of Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica
Image Credit: NASA/James Yungel/ Creative Commons: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

The Doomsday Glacier is getting closer and closer to irreversible collapse

An analysis of the expansion of cracks in the Thwaites Glacier over the past 20 years suggests that a total collapse could be only a matter of time.
From our Newsroom
Multiple Houston-area oil and gas facilities that have violated pollution laws are seeking permit renewals

Multiple Houston-area oil and gas facilities that have violated pollution laws are seeking permit renewals

One facility has emitted cancer-causing chemicals into waterways at levels up to 520% higher than legal limits.

Regulators are underestimating health impacts from air pollution: Study

Regulators are underestimating health impacts from air pollution: Study

"The reality is, we are not exposed to one chemical at a time.”

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro speaks with the state flag and American flag behind him.

Two years into his term, has Gov. Shapiro kept his promises to regulate Pennsylvania’s fracking industry?

A new report assesses the administration’s progress and makes new recommendations

silhouette of people holding hands by a lake at sunset

An open letter from EPA staff to the American public

“We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We need to hold this administration accountable.”

wildfire retardants being sprayed by plane

New evidence links heavy metal pollution with wildfire retardants

“The chemical black box” that blankets wildfire-impacted areas is increasingly under scrutiny.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.