This article appeared in the September 16, 2019 edition of the Monitor Daily.

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Covering Climate Now: The story of the century

Noelle Swan
Weekly Editor

Welcome to your Daily. Today’s stories explore the viability of centrism in U.S. politics, Israel’s fractious divide over religion and state, the use of subterfuge in state politics, the role of immigrants in the food industry, and the dearth of political satire in American culture.

What would you say is the most pressing challenge facing the world today?

Migration? Economic instability? Global conflict? Hunger?

Depending on your politics and worldview, any of these issues might be a top concern. But these challenges are all being stoked by a common fuel: climate change.

For years, discussion of climate change was relegated to scientific and environmental circles. As politicians, particularly in the United States, have bickered over whether the science can be trusted, it has become undeniably clear that climate change is already upon us. And it is affecting nearly every aspect of modern life.

Extreme weather events that used to strike once every 100 years are now becoming increasingly frequent. Entire communities are being displaced by encroaching seas. Famine and drought are adding fuel to the ongoing global refugee crisis.

But that’s not the whole story. This unprecedented global crisis has sparked an equally unprecedented global effort to do something about it. While some may be tempted to throw up their hands and give up, forward-thinking scientists, engineers, politicians, even students have seized the challenge of a lifetime: saving the planet.

The Monitor has long focused on efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. This week, we are joining Columbia Journalism Review, The Nation, and more than 250 news outlets around the world in the Covering Climate Now initiative to amplify coverage of this crisis.


This article appeared in the September 16, 2019 edition of the Monitor Daily.

Read 09/16 edition
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