Did they ever? Yes, they did (well at least half of them did according to the article!)
According to the article, climate change has taken a back seat to talk of clean technologies and energy security. TV network news coverage of the issue in the United States reached its peak around mid-2006 with major media outlets including print media mentioning climate change as much as they did in 2004. “And the issue’s lower profile seems to be having an effect on public opinion. Polls from George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication show that Americans’ worry about climate change was at a zenith around November 2008, with 54 percent saying that it should be a high priority for the government. Last June, however, only about 44 percent said it should be a high priority. A Gallup poll from last month found that Americans rated global warming as the environmental problem they worry about the least.”
Pretty scary stuff. Any ideas why the media is talking less and less about climate change? Even though, they should be talking about it more and more!
Here are links to some interesting slide shows that are included in the article:
http://www.usnews.com/news/slideshows/10-reasons-america-talks-less-about-climate-change http://www.usnews.com/news/slideshows/the-10-states-that-use-the-least-energy-per-capita
This is an interesting article! It’s sad to see that climate change is viewed as such a negative concept and term. I do find it comforting though that sustainability terms such as “clean energy” are still terms that people respond positively to. I think we need to continue working on finding terms like these that cause people to respond positively and focus on round about ways to stop climate change rather than addressing it head on. I personally think that the economic downturn did play a large part in the media stopping their discussions on climate change! I don’t buy that the news was too negative since that’s all the news seems to focus on anyway!
i think some pretty bad things are going to happen before America, as a whole, will do anything serious about climate change. Yes there are some states that are doing things, but as far as a holistic policy goes that each state has to commit to, i do not see anything in the near future happening. This is not to say that we should not try anything, but i feel that the global corporation has too much power right now. Look at Enron. This is a classic example that the energy business can be manipulated in such an easy fashion by a few people. Altruism rarely exists when there are no incentives.
Really interesting thing to consider. One thing I noticed when I was researching my final paper on how climate change is affecting indigenous people is that a huge majority of my sources and the articles/books/papers I read were from 2008, which as you mentioned, was the zenith for Americans being concerned about climate change. I’m sure those indigenous groups are feeling the effects of it even more, but there doesn’t seem to be as much widespread publicized attention focused on it since the UN Forum on Indigenous Issues met in 2008.