Published by the Florida Center for Government Accountability
An open letter to Florida’s newspapers
The Invading Sea, Can South Florida Be Saved: by the CLEO Institute, October 18, 2021
We are a group of nonprofit organizations, fellow journalists, business leaders, educational institutions, and Floridians who are calling on you to unite and showcase your journalistic integrity when it comes to covering our planet’s most pressing issue – the climate crisis.
This summer, you covered firsthand the devastating impact of a warming planet, from extreme heat and devastating flooding to catastrophic hurricanes and wildfires. While the impacts of the climate crisis were in full display, and 7 out of 10 Americans believe in global warming, only 4 out of 10 of them think it will harm them personally, according to the Yale Climate Communication Opinion maps.
Even more alarming is that only 2 out of 10 Floridians hear about global warming in the media at least once a week. This is a very low number, and we need our news outlets to cover this topic more widely and connect it to other news stories so readers can understand how a warming climate is affecting them.
Sunday, October 24th is the International Day for Climate Action. It is also a week before the United Nations COP26 climate summit…