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

Posing as a wind turbine blade with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Department of Energy (DOE) staff
Photo Credit: Gregory Cooper / NREL https://www.flickr.com/photos/nrel/ Creative Commons: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

Federal energy lab reduces workforce, cutting 134 jobs

A federal research lab formerly known as the National Renewable Energy Lab laid off more than 100 people this week.

white pollution from smokestack billows over skyline during sunset.

Trump repeals U.S. government’s power to regulate climate

Nearly 17 years after the Environmental Protection Agency declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten the public’s health and welfare, the agency on Thursday rescinded the landmark legal opinion underpinning a wave of federal policies aimed at climate change.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum U.S. Secretary of the Interior  speaking at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/54361574624/

Burgum calls energy transition a ‘fantasy’ as EPA guts climate regulations

The Interior secretary cast doubt on widely accepted climate science and touted plans to build out the nation’s reserves of critical minerals.
Solar panels & wind turbines against setting sun

China could reach peak greenhouse gas emissions sooner than Beijing planned, new report suggests

Falling emissions from the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter could mean a global turning point.
Fishing boat with offshore wind turbines in background
Credit: Photo by Bob Brewer/ Unsplash

Offshore wind showed up big during the East Coast’s brutal cold

America’s two utility-scale offshore wind farms performed as well as gas power plants and better than coal in January — including during Winter Storm Fern.
a person riding a bike down the middle of a road surrounded by tropical forest

Banks decline to finance LNG project in Papua New Guinea

Twenty-nine global banks reject financing a Papua New Guinea LNG project led by TotalEnergies, citing climate, environmental and human rights concerns.
Katrina hurricane destruction, dead, dying, barren forest, still visible two years later.
Credit: Gino Santa Maria/BigStock Photo ID: 1983846

30,000 trees planted to restore Katrina-ravaged barrier

In the wetlands of coastal southeast Louisiana, conservation groups are wrapping up a four-year project to plant 30,000 trees.
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.