Extinction Rebellion Releases flares in anger at CNN wildfire coverage
Sept. 17, 2020, Washington DC - Rebels from Extinction Rebellion DC (XRDC) set off smoke flares and dumped ash outside CNN’s DC offices on Friday, September 18, in protest at the corporation’s appalling coverage of the wildfire crisis.
Photos here (please credit Gabe Cowan).
Rebels tipped ash over CNN news presenters to highlight the outlet’s failure to tell viewers the truth about the connection between the climate crisis and the wildfires in the west.
CNN mentioned climate change just five times in 49 of the segments it aired about the wildfires. It spent just three minutes covering the fires over a four-day period. Out of 12 CNN articles on the wildfires surveyed from September 12th to September 14th, not one explains that fossil fuels are to blame for the climate crisis.
“This is a climate and ecological emergency. The climate crisis has set our home on fire. Mass extinction is already happening. People are being burned alive. Worse is to come. Billions will suffer. And yet CNN is still failing to tell the truth about the gravest existential threat facing humankind. The media must stop missing the story of the century. Outlets like CNN have a moral duty to make the emergency headline news every single day,” said Reilly Polka, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion.
New data underlines how poorly informed Americans are about the existential threat. Only one in four people hear about global heating in the news at least once a week. Only one in two people understand that humans are causing the crisis.
The fires have burned 5 million acres and killed dozens of people. Hundreds of thousands of animals have died.
About Extinction Rebellion
Time is running out to address the climate and ecological crisis, which includes the sixth mass species extinction, global pollution, and abrupt, runaway climate change. Societal collapse and mass death are seen as inevitable by scientists and other credible voices, with human extinction also a possibility, if rapid action is not taken.
Extinction Rebellion believes it is a citizen’s duty to rebel using peaceful civil disobedience when faced with criminal inactivity by their Government.
Extinction Rebellion’s demands are:
Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.
Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.
Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.
Government must commit to a just transition that prioritizes the most marginalized and affected people, eliminates structural inequality, and establishes remediation for years of environmental injustice.
