Auto media are still not taking climate change seriously enough

Ezra Klein (2021) recently commented that “it seems odd that we would just let the world burn.”

As a case in point, after summarizing climate change’s escalating predations, he argued that even President Biden’s plan “is not nearly enough” of a response. Yet Congress is so polarized that the potential for even some of Biden’s proposals to gain passage is questionable.

Klein (2021) concluded that he didn’t know how “to force the political system to do enough, fast enough, to avert mass suffering.” Although he argued that there is “nothing we should not prepare to try,” Klein noted that “even if we invent the fuels of the future, we will need policymakers to deploy them over the cries of industries that want to profit from the machines and oil wells of the past.”

Automotive media are shifting, but far too slowly

In recent years climate change coverage has shifted at least somewhat with the automotive trade and buff media. For example, a recent Automotive News (2021) editorial stated that the government’s job “is to slow global warming and protect the air and water.”

Meanwhile, Car and Driver just posted a helpful story on how to prep your garage for an electric vehicle (Vanderwerp, 2021). Perhaps more tellingly, another story on the European Union’s plan to ban the sale of new internal-combustion cars by 2035 only questioned its timing rather than the general policy direction (Ramey, 2021).

Even The Truth About Cars‘ writer Matt Posky (2021) stopped hyperventilating about the “eco-communist” menace in favor of more measured complaints, such as that electrification will “result in widespread job losses.” In addition, his take was more negative than that of Managing Editor Tim Healey (2021), who stated that “climate change is real” and that “we don’t have time” for a leisurely shift to EVs.

Also see ‘Automotive News backtracks on shift to electric vehicles’

We have indeed come a long way from the days when Brock Yates (2003) would mercilessly mock climate science. Or even more recently, when Automotive News Editor-in-Chief Keith Crain (2019) would lament, “EV fever: I just don’t get it” (go here for our take).

That said, in general the auto media lack a sense of urgency. For example, Automotive News has tended to frame the issue narrowly as a rather abstract regulatory battle rather than paying much attention to the underlying problem needing to be solved. In addition, policy stories get overshadowed by new product launches and sales reports. This can cultivate the attitude, “What’s the big deal, anyway?”

Incremental change not possible due to foot dragging

Climate expert David Roberts (2021) argues that policy decisions have become more and more difficult because “after decades of denial and delay, there is no longer any coherent ‘moderate’ position to be had.” Why does he say this?

“To allow temperatures to rise past 1.5° or 2°C this century is to accept unthinkable disruption to agriculture, trade, immigration, public health, and basic social cohesion,” Roberts (2021) states. “To hold temperature rise to less than 1.5° or 2°C this century will require enormous, heroic decarbonization efforts on the part of every wealthy country.”

Also see ‘CO2 emissions: Automakers still partying like it’s 1975’

Either of those scenarios represent a radical shift. “There is no non-radical future available for the US in decades to come. Our only choice is the proportions of the mix: action vs. impacts. The less action we and other countries take to address the threat, the more impacts we will all suffer,” Roberts (2021) concludes.

Have you seen an automotive media outlet fully acknowledge this? Outside of Electrek, I haven’t. This is a major abdication of journalistic responsibility. And it has been made all the worse by the relative lack of coverage about the industry’s historic foot dragging on climate change, which reaches further back than many might assume (go here for further discussion).

Automotive media need to take two crucial steps

The automotive trade and buff media should take two steps if they wish to be viewed as journalistically credible on climate change.

First, they need to place much more emphasis on educating their readership about how automotive usage has contributed to climate change. In other words, scientific data should be presented that explains why policymakers from around the world have been proposing the rapid electrification of the automotive fleet.

Also see ‘All-time best climate change coverage by auto media?’

Second, the auto media need to regularly report on how well the industry is meeting climate-change policy targets. For example, just as the trade journals report on annual sales, they should also report on the latest findings on greenhouse gas research.

If these sound like radical moves, it is only because the automotive media have not been doing their job. It’s time to put the journalistic pedal to the metal and treat climate change as the planetary emergency that it is.

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RE:SOURCES

• Automotive News; 2021. “EV favoritism could weaken climate progress.” (Subscription required). Posted July 12.
• Crain, Keith; 2019. “EV fever: I just don’t get it.” Automotive News (subscription required). Posted March 11.
• Healey, Tim; 2021. “Opinion: EV Shift Will Require Philosophical Blend.” The Truth About Cars. Posted July 13.
• Klein, Ezra; 2021. “It Seems Odd That We Would Just Let the World Burn.” The New York Times. Posted July 15.
• Posky, Matt; 2021. “Europe Proposes Banning Internal Combustion Cars By 2035.” The Truth About Cars. Posted July 19.
• Ramey, Jay; 2021. “EU Plans to Phase Out Internal-Combustion Cars by 2035.” Car and Driver. July 18.
• Roberts, David; 2021. “There is no ‘moderate’ position on climate change.” Volts. June 30.
• Vanderwerp, Dave; 2021. “How Do I Prep My Garage for an EV?” Car and Driver. Posted July 7.
• Yates, Brock; 2003. “Save the Earth! Drive an SUV!” Car and Driver. Posted May 1.

PHOTOGRAPHY:

• Author’s photos: ‘Still motion: A haunting encounter with a 1940s Chevy truck’