In a demonstration of just how desperate his “gotcha” games have gotten, the Daily Caller’s Michael Bastasch has spun an entire story out of a pedantic nitpick about how “Media Outlets Discover ‘America’s First Climate Refugees’—For The 3rd Time 3 Years” [sic].
Bastasch takes issue with a recent New York Times story about the $48 million in federal funds being used for “Resettling the First American ‘Climate Refugees.” It’s a sad but interesting feature story, accompanied by hauntingly beautiful photos of Louisiana’s Isle de Jean Charles, which has lost over 90 percent of its land since 1955. This was the first grant given as part of the federal government’s plan to dispense $1 billion to help communities adapt to climate change -- thus the Isle’s unpleasant distinction as "America’s first climate refugees."
This is the entire focus of Bastasch's story, pointing out that in prior years other outlets have referred to the villages of Newtok and Kivalina, Alaska as being home to America’s first climate refugees. Bastasch’s tone in the piece is as if he’s made some shocking discovery of media malfeasance instead of respecting the sad fact that there are a number of communities being forced to relocate due to climate change. The Alaskan villagers were the first to introduce the issue of climate refugees to the United States, while the residents of the Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana are the first to receive official funding for relocation.
Not only is this distinction not worthy of a "news" story (though it does alert the Daily Caller’s audience to the refugees ' plight, when perhaps they would’ve otherwise not realized their fellow Americans are losing their homes to climate change), turning the suffering of these peoples into clickbait is pretty despicable.
Though it’s hard to really blame Bastasch. After all, deniers like him are a dwindling breed, forced to operate within their ever-shrinking bubble of conservative media. Even late-night TV offers them no refuge, with Jimmy Kimmel providing a blistering and hilarious 7-minute take-down of Sarah Palin and Climate Hustle, ending with a…let’s say strongly worded two-minute message from six climate scientists (and one foul-mouthed child).
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