From New York to Newtok, Global Warming Affects the U.S. But You Wouldn't Know It From the U.S. Press

The Headline in the Tehran Times spells it out, “Alaska town will likely end up swallowed by the Bearing Sea in 2017.” The story ran about a week ago and describes the plight of Newtok, a small coastal town, due to sea level rise. The story also appeared in the Guardian and is part of a series that the British newspaper is publishing on Newtok and other coastal towns in Alaska that are threatened by climate driven sea level rise.

            Besides The Tehran Times and The Guardian, I found the story in a few Alaska newspapers, but otherwise the story of this town and the assault it is receiving from an ever-rising sea did not appear in any other major news outlet, even news outlets of the U.S.

            OK, news editors may have passed on this story because there are fewer that 500 residents in Newtok, and the town is, despite being in the United States, pretty far away from most Americans. Sitting on the Bearing Sea, it is way closer to Russia than it is to any other state of the union. Even still, Tehran and London, which are way, way far away from Newtok, chose to run this story about America’s first climate refugees. And despite the small number of people affected by sea level rise in Newtok, it is a significant story. These are the very first Americans to be affected by global sea level rise. Besides the human interest of their situation, the story of their town is a harbinger for Seattle, San Diego, and any other city that will be affected by the rising oceans.

            In more than one way, New York City is a world away from Newtok. The city of skyscrapers nonetheless shares in the effects of climate change with the small village. According to this story in the Guardian, in the next ten years New York will experience a 22 percent rise in heat related deaths due to global warming. This is a story of people dying in America’s largest city due to climate change, and, so far, no American paper has this story, even the New York Times.

             I understand that the press is hyperventilating over stories such as Benghazi, the IRS scrutiny of tea party organizations, and I would be loath to suggest that there is any type of conspiracy among the press and big business to keep the coverage of global warming to a minimum. But these climate change stories are significant, and it is disquieting to think that I can be better informed about the effects of global warming on Alaska and New York by looking to London and Tehran.