24 March 2009

Corporate Green.

The New York Times has created a new section devoted to environmental issues, but it's a subset of the Business and Financial news page. You can't get to it from The Times' home page; you have to click on the Business section and then find it under "More in Business," where "Energy and Environment" is the last item on the right side of the page.

Or follow this link to the section, also called "Green Inc."

The Times is the Gray Lady, the self-styled paper of record in which readers can find "all the news fit to print." Apparently, then, all the environmental news fit to print is that which relates to business and finance.

Problem is, reversing climate change requires a paradigm shift in which much of what is done in the name of business and finance is eliminated or drastically changed. Global agribusiness, for example, needs to decline in favor of local production of food, sold by individual farmers to people in the nearby community.

Manufacturing processes that depend upon cheap oil so that goods can be shipped around the world, made into components shipped around the world again and then assembled into finished products once again shipped around the world? No good.

Business models that ignore environmental and community consequences for expansion? Nope.

Readers of The Times need thorough, comprehensive reporting on the environment, not just a little spillage of green ink.

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