Our News Media Avoids the Most Obvious Issues Re: Sustainability

I’ve been laid up for a couple of days with a badly tweaked back, resulting in my first major exposure to commercial television in a while.  I wrote about CBS’ “Sunday Morning” a bit earlier in the day, and I spent most of the afternoon reading and half-watching a golf tournament.

Here’s a note on something I normally skip: 60 Minutes.  It’s a piece on a wealthy guy’s quest to rescue a  few subspecies of turtles from extinction – a noble goal, to be sure. But why aren’t viewers (and the show’s producers) asking the most obvious questions?  I wanted to know:

• So this guy loves turtles, and that’s excellent.  But what about the rest of the species that are disappearing at an alarming rate? Doesn’t the loss of our turtles imply something about our civilization’s disregard for its sustainability that at least deserves a footnote?

• What are the major economic and political conditions that promote poaching and the other causes for these animals’ extinction?

• What are the key issues on this planet that are fostering the rapid and massive destruction of the biosphere?

Those among us who are still paying attention understand:  Most of these issues involve the activities of Earth’s most powerful vested interests that generate and sell energy, mainly from fossil fuel sources, an industry that is by far the most profitable in the entire history of humankind.  These people know for a fact that what they’re doing is ruining our fragile environment, and that it’s choking and poisoning the peoples of the world.  But they’re making money, and they simply don’t care.