It’s a problem threatening our very existence on Earth, and yet Massachusetts public schools only started requiring education on climate change three years ago. We need changes to the global economy on a scale that has “no documented historic precedent,” the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wrote in a special report last year — not the timid approach taken by so many in power. The IPCC says countries must be well on their way to net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 to prevent global temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the increased risk of irreversible, catastrophic change. As Hans-Otto Pörtner, co-chairman of one of the IPCC groups, put it: “Every extra bit of warming matters.”
For all of these reasons, the Gazette has decided to join Covering Climate Now — an initiative started by The Nation, the Columbia Journalism Review and the British newspaper The Guardian — to address the lack of reporting on the subject, along with more than 250 media outlets around the world.
The climate crisis deserves more focus than just the occasional headline. Over the next week, you’ll read stories about the region’s biggest polluters, how local farmers are grappling with unpredictable weather patterns, and what a Green New Deal would look like in the Pioneer Valley.
We hope this week of coverage inspires more conversation and collective action. There is hope if we act now.
— Greta Jochem and Dusty
Christensen, staff writers