Murdoch's Global Warming "Pivot" More Of The Same From The Cloaca Maxima Of "News"
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Recently News Corporation, a long-time blocker of climate action, loudly proclaimed a grand turnaround in its attitude. The “Mission Zero” campaign wrapped the smiling faces of miners, billionaires and government advisers around the paper. This campaign must be seen entirely within the context of the outlet’s legacy on climate. It is an ugly record. According to one recent study, the climate science reporting in News Corp’s Australia outlets was the worst compared to New Zealand, Canada, UK and US media. The Daily Telegraph and the Courier Mail scored second and fourth worst in terms of climate science disinformation between 2005 and 2019. Even in the midst of the Black Summer bushfires, the Australian published an op-ed declaring: “There are no carbon emissions. If there were, we could not see because most carbon is black.” This sits alongside campaigns to frame renewable energy as too unreliable, too expensive and even causing “wind turbine syndrome”.
News Corp has played a major role in ensuring a truly catastrophic track record for emissions in Australia over the past decade. Though the Labor party’s 2009 to 2014 renewable policies resulted in some ongoing reductions, those are easily erased by ballooning coal and gas mining projects and a growing fleet of city-choking combustion engine vehicles. Only a deadly pandemic has resulted in a meaningful drop in fossil emissions in Australia.
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For Australia, the abysmal 2030 emissions target of 26% (of 2005 levels) by 2030 needs to be axed. A real trajectory to align with a 1.5C warming limit would mean a reduction of around 74% by 2030, according to a report by the Climate Targets Panel. “Mission Zero” mentions none of these things. The company has a trophy wall of climate policy scalps – carbon pricing, a vehicle efficiency standard, home insulation and badly-damaged renewable targets. But when the time calls for them to propose and argue in favour for new policy, they revert to vague promises about technology, and an absolution narrative for the country’s worst emitters.
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News Corp leans on its monopolistic grip on Australian media to ensure that delivering the bare minimum on climate is met with nervous applause from players trapped under their all-encompassing umbrella. This cruel power dynamic hasn’t changed. In the not-guaranteed event that News Corp is faced with a political opposition that proposes real, substantial emissions cuts aligned with global climate goals, it will revert back to its comfort zone: adding climate policy scalps to its trophy wall. We know this because nothing fundamental has changed.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/12/news-corps-turnaround-on-climate-is-a-greenwash
