Truthout’s weekly posting of short videos about climate change and its effects, “The Green Ninja,” a character created by a climate scientist and his team, provides an entertaining and educational way to help middle school aged children – and everyone else – grasp the intricacies of climate change and learn what they can personally do to become involved in fighting it. See additional details about the series or head straight to this week’s episode, “Clark’s Story.”
In this week’s episode of the Green Ninja Show, a man named Clark wants to go outside, but it is too cold to just wear a T-shirt. He needs to put on a coat to insulate him from the cold air outside. The only problem is: if he wears clothes that are too thin, he will be cold, while if his apparel is too warm, it will be uncomfortably hot!
Just like Clark, the Earth needs to be insulated from the high and low temperatures of space, but too little or too much insulation is also a bad thing. Clark goes on to tell the story about his great-grandfather who sold his mules to help the coal miners. All of the coal found around the world back in Clark’s great-grandfather’s time has been burned for heat and energy. Coal is a carbon-based mineral, so burning it releases carbon into the atmosphere. When carbon gets into the atmosphere, it has a way of sticking around.
Carbon molecules in Earth’s atmosphere add to the natural insulation shielding the planet from extraterrestrial temperatures. This is a huge problem because the atmosphere already had enough insulation, so by adding carbon to the atmosphere, the Earth becomes over-insulated and that keeps more heat trapped inside the atmosphere.
Feeling warm?
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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