Hot Topic: How Billionaires Hijacked the Conversation About Heat Waves
An exploration of how billionaire media executives are profiting from keeping us in the dark about climate change while the UK boils.
by Alice Bjerregaard
As we go through back-to-back heatwaves this summer, the climate crisis is at the forefront of public consciousness once again. Scientists warned us decades ago that the planet was getting hotter. Now people are dropping from heatstroke and supermarket fridges are malfunctioning.
Just walking through town without even intending to eavesdrop, I am constantly overhearing comments about “global warming”.
It is not lost on the general public that a sinister phenomenon is behind the extreme heat. The same cannot be said for the Media companies sharing crucial information on the weather phenomena. A study found that “72% of articles in national newspapers which referred to ‘heatwave’ or ‘extreme heat’ didn’t include a reference to climate change”.
Did it slip the minds of hundreds of professional journalists? Did they just not think it relevant to their reporting to talk about the scientific consensus of what is behind the crisis they are describing?
Considering that the heat wave death toll is pushing 3000 as of early August, their framing seems mismatched to the experience of living through this weather and surge of climate anxiety it is causing. To get to the root of this mismatch, the most reliable place to start is asking: who profits?
The same study found that the worst offender of this was The Sun. Only 6% of their articles on the heat waves refer to climate change. A lot goes into deciding what gets published, but a big part of it is appeasing the higher-ups. Those who profit. Just imagine how many of these Sun journalists are gunning for the same promotions.
The Sun is owned by News UK, one of three companies that combined own 90% of British newspapers. The chief executive of News UK is Rebekah Brooks. A close friend of Rupert Murdoch, whom Vanity Fair called a “virtual member of the Murdoch Family”, Brooks has made a career pulling at the strings of her political connections and billionaire besties.
Murdoch and his many media executive friends around the world make their fortunes pushing conservatism and legitimising climate scepticism. Our current situation in the UK echoes what we saw just a few years ago in Australia when bushfires devastated ecosystems and claimed dozens of human lives. However, to publications owned by Murdoch’s News Corp, raging fires throughout the country were not front page worthy.
News Corp also owns Talk Radio and Talk TV, as well as Fox News in the US, famously a favourite of Donald Trump. These publications artificially inflate the validity of climate scepticism in otherwise science-savvy societies.
During the fires, the majority of Australians, 64%, agreed with net zero emission targets by 2050. If net zero targets had unanimous support, it could devastate News Corp’s profit margins, as well as businesses that thrive on climate destruction (the meat and oil industries come to mind).
This is the crux of how billionaire-owned media undermines democracy in favour of a technological and informational oligarchy.
I spoke about this to Caspar Hughes, long-time climate activist and one of the minds behind the Media Sovereignty Act, who said:
The newspapers (owned by billionaires) have successfully smashed the political consensus that humans are driving climate change. The media billionaire’s short-term drive for power and profit is a death cult that will destroy our civilisation.
Caspar is right. The informational global oligarchy is a death cult worshipping money and power. Profit-driven media companies can only measure reporting by the money it makes the bosses.
This capitalist model cannot measure quality of reporting or depth of reader engagement, with devastating consequences for less flashy but vitally important topics like climate change. We saw it lead to hell on earth in Australia, and now the same is happening here.
The solution?
Beats me, but I’m starting by supporting a thorough revision of how our information outlets are allowed to operate.
Sources
Three in four UK newspaper articles on record-breaking heatwave didn’t mention climate.
https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/three-in-4-uk-newspaper-articles-on-record-breaking-heatwave-didnt-mention-climate
England on track for record heat-related deaths this year, UKHSA estimates
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0m78g01r8jo
How ‘Murdochracy’ controls the climate debate in Australia
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/1/24/how-murdochracy-controls-the-climate-debate-in-australia