Eye off the ball

Environmental health is as critical to homeland security as the ubiquitous War on Terror

an editorial by aileo weinmann

Aileo Weinmann, a master's student in the School of Journalism at Michigan State University, is editor of EJ.

By the time you read this, our 44th presidential election will have released its stranglehold on the news. I file this column on the day after the election, as George W. Bush outlined his agenda for a second term. President Bush hasn’t mentioned environmental policy yet, but this is no surprise. The decisions that shape the future quality of the air, water and natural resource in the United States remain largely in the shadows. Critics charge that waning environmental coverage in mainstream media represents a failure of the press.

At the most recent Society of Environmental Journalists national conference, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the press bears blame for not making headline news out of the Bush administration’s environmental policy. A senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Kennedy argued that the first Bush administration rewrote environmental laws to favor industry and filled government appointments with lobbyists and business executives who now watch over their former industries. Kennedy said the press hasn’t reported this story sufficiently.

Whatever you think of Kennedy’s specific point-of-view, war coverage is pushing environmental health — and other important issues — off the front page. Short of an oil spill or nuclear meltdown, stories about environmental health don’t have the same perceived immediacy as reports about war casualties or terrorism.

According to Margaret O’Brien, an associate editor at the Chicago Tribune, news holes previously reserved for specialized beats such as the environment are increasingly devoted to war and terrorism. This trend has torpedoed many environmental beats altogether or pushed environmental coverage onto a single reporter who is already covering many other areas. That’s why you read magazines like this.

Long-term American safety and prosperity depends as much on environmental as foreign policy. Our public health and quality of life hinge on how the needs of burgeoning human populations are balanced with natural resource management. These decisions involve immensely complex issues: energy policy, air and water regulations, international trade agreements. With what now appears to be a perpetual War on Terror, there is a real risk that the complex issues of environmental policy will be pushed out of our national consciousness.

There is outstanding environmental press coverage locally, nationally and internationally — you just have to know where to find it. If your mainstream media source isn’t doing the job, supplement it with an alternative voice that focuses on the environment. Environmental policy decisions are too important to allow them to happen without public scrutiny.

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