I Love a Planet with a Happy Atmosphere (Michael Greenwell)

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Michael Greenwell -- World News Trust

March 24, 2009 -- The newspapers and TV like natural disasters. They provide countless emotional and, on the whole, non-controversial scenes (with the exception of New Orleans as the Bush administration seems capable of making anything controversial with the way they handle things) and keep people glued to the news.

Also, there is never any need to provide context and background for natural disasters and most of the major media excel at missing context and background (Palestine, Northern Ireland, etc., etc.).

So the news has been full of two horrific things recently -- the Chinese earthquake and the Burmese storm. Both tragedies have rightly received a lot of coverage, and for all it's worth my sympathies go to the victims and their families.

But there is another disaster underway and it is anything but natural. It can’t easily be cut into two-minute sections for news reports.

It is hard to find an exact location for where it is happening and the fact that there are several causes makes it difficult for reporters to isolate it from the larger story that surrounds it.

I am referring to this from the BBC…

Wildlife populations ‘plummeting’

more

http://www.worldnewstrust.com/wnt-reports/commentary/i-love-a-planet-with-a-happy-atmosphere.html