NY Times Editor: Journalists Shouldn’t Take Claims of Climate ‘Hoax’ Seriously
The New York Times‘s new environment editor, Adam Bryant, sat down for an interview with the paper’s own Times Insider to talk about how he plans to cover environmental issues during his tenure. Bryant says he wants to be able to inform readers about the impact of different causes on the earth’s climate and the various solutions being explored to remedy it.
But then we get to that age-old question about science journalism: do you allow skeptics to weigh in? Climate change skepticism is still alive and well, with 25 percent of Americans saying in a poll this year that they are very skeptical of climate science. Even the co-founder of The Weather Channel said on Fox News last night that global warming is a myth.
So when it comes to covering climate skepticism, this is how Bryant wants the Times to proceed:
Claims that the entire field of climate science is some kind of giant hoax do not hold water, and we have made a conscious decision that we are not going to take that point of view seriously. At the same time, there is a huge amount of legitimate debate and uncertainty within mainstream science. Scientists are pretty open about not being sure how bad things will get, or how quickly. These are the valid scientific issues and uncertainties that we want to cover.
Bryant does believe there is merit in getting informed second opinions, just not from people with kneejerk reactions to the mere mention of climate change.
[h/t Poynter]
[image via Haxorjoe]
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