Our Demands
The climate and ecological emergency is causing mass extinction. Life is rapidly unravelling. The collapse of civilization is a stark possibility.
The free press has a moral obligation to Tell the Truth about the emergency. However, our news media is failing to Tell the Truth about the nature and severity of the climate and ecological crisis. It can only redeem past failures to report on the climate and ecological crisis with an immediate shift to high-profile, inclusive, and fearless coverage. There will be no journalism on a dead planet.
Extinction Rebellion DC’s Tell the Truth Campaign has six central demands that, if adopted by The Washington Post, CNN, and other major news outlets, would revolutionize American coverage of the seminal story in human history.
DEMAND 1: FRONT-PAGE HEADLINES EVERY DAY
The climate and ecological crisis is the most seminal story in human history and must be front-page news every single day. CNN and The Washington Post need to Tell the Truth about the crisis and cover it with the urgency that this crisis demands, including daily segments on every news show.
DEMAND 2: CLIMATE EVERYWHERE: EVERY BEAT, EVERY STORY
Stories about the climate crisis and the collapse of the natural world are often relegated to the science and environmental beats. This must change, because the crisis impacts every single beat. It is an economic story and a public health story. It is a public transportation story, a sports story, and an urban design story. Global heating and ecological collapse impact racial justice, equity, community development, food, global supply chains, water resources, leisure, tech infrastructure, and much more.
Newsrooms need to:
Ensure that the climate and ecological crisis is covered by journalists, no matter their beat.
Provide mandatory training for reporters and editors across beats to help them understand the essentials of climate science, climate justice, solutions to the crisis, and the history of global climate and ecological injustice.
Report the links to climate breakdown in every story about extreme weather and its effects.
DEMAND 3: REMOVE FINANCIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The Washington Post and CNN take money from fossil fuel companies and other life-destroying industries. These firms are directly responsible for the destruction of the natural world. The damage they are doing to the well-being of billions of people now and to future generations is criminal.
CNN and The Washington Post must immediately:
Ban all advertising from companies that trade in fossil fuels.
Divest from fossil fuel companies.
Stop spinning the lies of fossil fuel companies and other life-destroying industries’ by banning all branded content paid for by these firms
4. SUGGEST REAL SOLUTIONS
CNN and The Washington Post must stop regurgitating soothing technical balms to the climate and ecological crisis. It must stop promoting individual action as the solution to the emergency. The crisis is a result of the fundamental flaws in our current economic, cultural, and political system and a failure to implement systems change on a global scale.
If the news media fails to consistently report on people who dare to imagine and fight for systems-level change, then it fails to address the emergency. Editors must:
Be clear that individual actions alone will not solve the climate and ecological crisis.
Report on how our current economic, cultural, and political system is largely to blame for the crisis.
Stop suggesting that consumer-driven solutions, which place the burden and guilt on individuals, are the only solutions. We need systems change.
Devote more column inches to systems-level and community-driven solutions.
Listen to the science on the crisis. Acknowledge the speed and scale of the systemic changes needed to address climate breakdown and ecological collapse.
5. USE CLIMATE EMERGENCY LANGUAGE
The Washington Post and CNN must use language that expresses the severity of the climate and ecological emergency. It needs to update its language to accurately reflect the existential threat posed by global heating and the destruction of the natural world.
It must immediately start using climate emergency language:
Stop calling it “climate change.” Name the threat: “climate crisis,” “climate breakdown,” “climate destruction,” or “climate emergency.” Even better: “climate and ecological crisis/breakdown/emergency.”
Stop calling it “global warming.” Instead use “global heating.”
Stop calling it “biodiversity.” Instead use “wildlife” or “the living world.”
Stop calling it “biodiversity loss.” Instead use “destruction of the living/natural world.” Do not publish statements that cast doubt on the scientific consensus that a catastrophic climate and ecological crisis is underway and driven by human activity.
Do not print the opinion of writers who cast doubt on the scientific consensus about the climate and ecological crisis and the impacts of this emergency.
6. ENACT CLIMATE STANDARDS FOR POLITICAL ENDORSEMENTS
At a minimum, prerequisites for endorsing candidates should require support for halting all new fossil fuel infrastructure, support for a climate plan, and a plan for the natural world that ties to one or more of Extinction Rebellion’sDemands: declare a climate emergency, reach net zero emissions and halt biodiversity loss by 2025, a citizens’ assembly, and a just transition.
In the run-up to the election, The Washington Post and CNN should repeatedly bring the campaign story back to the climate and ecological crisis. It should consistently help audiences distinguish between candidates based on their climate and environmental policies.
