With raging forest fires in Australia, shrinking glaciers, and rising sea levels, it is obvious there is an anomaly with our planet’s climate. With climate change being such a large topic, there are hundreds of articles being released each week discussing the crisis at hand.
With so many daily news articles covering the climate crisis and its stigma, it is safe to say people are discussing the topic regularly. A great news article to read into for information is, ‘Ignore the Fake Climate Debate‘. This article covers the debate between alarmists and deniers discussing the climate debate and the relationship between human’s emissions of greenhouse gasses and warming climate. This article comes from a very reputable source known widely across the world as, The Wall Street Journal. Its author, Ted Nordhaus, is the founder and executive director of The Breakthrough Institute. The Breakthrough Institute is known for their global research that identifies technological solutions to human and environmental development challenges. With all this information, I would source this article as credible news. Not only does Mr. Nordhaus cite and offer both qualitative and quantitative data, he is considered to be an expert regarding climate crisis. Another great article is ‘The signal of human-caused climate change‘ written by Andrew Freedman, published in The Washington Post. Freedman goes in depth about human induced climate change in daily weather on a global scale. Furthermore, he cites his information from research facilities and institutions across the world. Freedman proves himself with his fine reputation on The Washington Post as an editor focusing solely on extreme weather, climate change, science, and the environment. All of the information combined leads me to believe that this news article can be trusted and is a credible source.
Within the news, you can always find opinion articles to either encourage or refute a topic. When it comes to the climate crisis the most prominent refuting opinions include the problem not existing, it not affecting us, or that it is entirely made up. Coverage on topics such as, ‘Climate change: just another political controversy’ can be easily identified as opinion news. This article can be found on the Astorian, a news website for people in or around the Oregon area. Author Don Haskell is a retired attorney and former commissioner for Clatsop County. This article goes in depth about the controversy of whether humans’ use of fossil fuels and other natural resources affects earth’s weather cycles. It is argued that climate change is not a scientific endeavor, but just one big political controversy funded with government money. The entirety of this article is based on the author’s opinions regarding the climate crisis. And while Haskell is not an expert within the climate crisis field, being a commissioner within Clatsop County holds some weight. While this article holds much information regarding why Haskell believes what he does, this article is not credible due to lack of citations and expert knowledge from the author. Another article of climate change opinion is ‘What Trump and Mnuchin understand‘ by Yanis Varoufakis, found on MarketWatch. He goes into detail on why he believes Greta Thunberg knows nothing real when it comes to the climate crisis and how he believes neither a climate or economic crisis is possible. While Varoufakis is known as the former finance minister of Greece and professor of economics at the University of Athens, his knowledge about the environment is lacking. The article is solely based on his knowledge of economics but his opinion regarding the climate crisis, results in a semi-credible opinion news article.
With so many news articles out on the internet covering just the climate crisis, it is easy to get confused between credible and non-credible sources along with actual news versus opinion news. By simply looking into the author, you can find their expertise, then look into the sources cited and you be the judge of whether or not you have a credible news article. Happy reading!
