Congressional Hearings on Climate Change: Did Anybody Hear About This?

There was a Congressional hearing this past week on climate change and the connection that climate change has to the extreme weather we’ve been having. Except for a 75-word piece in the Washington Post that announced the participation in the hearing by Senator Benjamin Cardin from Maryland, the hearing received no U.S. press. I read about the hearing in the Guardian, a paper from Britain.

Perhaps this country’s press was correct to pass on reporting on this hearing. After all, maybe there was nothing newsworthy in the hearings. That there was nothing new in earnest scientists telling Congress once again that, yes, global warming is really happening, and yes, that some of the freakish weather that has brought drought to half of the United States and wildfires throughout Colorado can be connected to that warming.

            And maybe they know that there is no news that Senator James Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate’s environment and public works committee, continues to claim that the science of climate change is a hoax. And they also know that there is no news in reporting that two of Inhofe’s biggest campaign contributors are Koch Industries—which has made its fortunes from oil, gas, and other extractive industries, as well as the Koch brothers being the financiers behind the T Party—and Murray Industries, the largest privately owned coal company in the United States.

            We know that big oil and King Coal are to blame for the inaction of our government to take steps to reduce carbon emissions and that shills like Inhofe are the most egregious enablers of this dangerous charade. The press, particularly the major papers and television networks, are also partly to blame for leaving important hearings and other news on climate change unreported.