Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change
Open Access

Abstract

While the attribution to this saying is debatable, its meaning is not, i.e., to occupy oneself with unimportant matters and neglect priorities during a crisis. To analogize Emperor Nero with ?The Media,? specifically the television/cable media, and a burning Rome to our planet Earth, may seem incongruous. Yet one is otherwise hard pressed to succinctly summarize ?The Media?s? sense of priorities in regards to environmental news content programming, generally, and to the climate change/global warming debate in particular. Currently, there exists no continuous broadcast platform dedicated exclusively to reporting the vast array of scientific developments occurring around the world. Rather, environmental news has been relegated to a ?disaster-du-jour? headline or to the ?pink elephant/dancing bear? segment towards the end of a broadcast. At the opposite extreme - bordering on dissemination of disinformation - a seriously alarming, recent development (first reported in ?Popular Science? magazine) indicates, in fact, a concerted effort by a FOX News commentator, Steve Milloy, who admitted he ?had offered a $500 bounty for a video of anyone who would heckle (Michael) Mann?? a Noble Prize winning climatologist, who, along with other climatologists, have been subjected to death threats, including their children, and crippling lawsuits. No other mainstream broadcast media reported on these most serious of developments. Planet Earth is at a cross-road. FOX News, Milloy, and his funding sources (comprised of the Koch Brothers, tobacco lobbyist, petroleum lobbyist allies), claim they ?are fighting an existentialist war? against climatologists, and would have the world take the lower, easy road. Thus, Earth911 Broadcast Network?s mission is clear and overdue. With your help, it is my intent to create and grow a 24/7/365 broadcast platform devoted exclusively to reporting in detail the myriad of scientific progress in understanding the complex issues and decisions before us in a reasoned, pragmatic matter, without the false ?existentialist? angst of science deniers.

Biography

Gilbert J. Placencia graduated from the University of Washington, School of Law, in Seattle, Washington, following undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California, School of Public Affairs. He has specialized in automated litigation database design and management for over 25 years, including multiple environmental actions involving both on-shore and off-shore oil well/refinery compliance with EPA regulations. He recently founded ?Earth911 Broadcast Network,? a non-profit start-up to establish a cable/webcast channel dedicated to reporting environmental news, primarily out of concern over the paucity of coverage by mainstream broadcast outlets. He has held one patent relating to water conservation, and has pending applications relating to seismic resistant structures.