Editor: New ownership won't change Nat Geo's climate change coverage
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The next chapter in the story of climate change will not be focused on finding evidence that it's happening — it will be about finding solutions to adapt to it.
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11. In preparation for the talks, MPR News' Kerri Miller spoke with Richard Alley, professor at the Department of Geosciences at Penn State University, and Dennis Dimick, Executive Environment Editor for National Geographic, about what to expect from the landmark meetings.
"I think that you'll find the real goal in Paris is to move forward, to push things in the direction that will help people," Alley said of the upcoming conference.
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Issues in print
National Geographic's most recent issue is entirely focused on climate change, and how governments and people are adapting to new weather realities.
While the magazine has covered the topic for more than a decade, readers raised concerns earlier this year when 21st Century Fox purchased a controlling stake in National Geographic. Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who has called himself a "climate change skeptic."
Responding to the issue of whether that would affect the magazine's coverage, Dimick said the sale was economic, not editorial.
The magazine's subscription base has dropped from 11.8 million in 1998 to 3.5 million in the U.S. today; the sale to Fox made sense for National Geographic's long-term financial health.
"If there were a time to double down on our coverage of climate change, it would be right now," Dimick said.
