Climate Change in the Big Apple

Trey Smith

Late last week, the New York Times made news – when it broke that the paper has shuttered its environment desk. The change isn't supposed to result in any layoffs, and the managing editor for news operations, Dean Baquet, told the news site Inside Climate that it "is purely a structural matter"  –  they haven't lost interest in covering environmental issues. The reporters will just be doing it from other formal desks.
~ from The Heat Is On As the New York Times Closes Its Environment Desk by Kate Sheppard ~

In the US, sports is a big deal. We Americans spend billions of dollars adoring sports and thousands of hours watching and reading about it. So, it would cause quite an uproar if the New York Times announced that it was shutting down its sports desk.

Do you want to read about the big game as reported by a business reporter? Rather than reading an analysis from your favorite sports columnist, do you want to know what the home and garden editor thinks about the Super Bowl match-up?

If the sports desk was closed, readers would be up in arms. Thousands would cancel their subscriptions and on-the-street protests wouldn't be out of the question.

But the closing of the environmental desk -- even though climate change is vastly more important than sports -- has netted few complaints. I think that says far more about us, the reading public, than the New York Times!!