“Donald Trump isn’t just a distinctly dystopian president but a potentially end-of-the-world one, too.” Image by Brian Wangenheim.

Imagine for a moment a nuclear weapon exploding over… well, you name it: Pakistan, India or, for that matter, Ukraine, Russia, or the United States. I guarantee you one thing: the news headlines would be (and I use the word advisedly) explosive for days (weeks, months?) on end, assuming of course that any media was left to cover it. And yet, here’s the strange thing: at this very moment, the slow-motion equivalent of a vast nuclear explosion is occurring over this planet of ours and, remind me, where are the stunning headlines? Where is the shock? Why is it so eternally passing news (or no news at all)?

Why doesn’t climate change make the headlines, except in the rarest of cases (or — itself a rare case — in the Guardian, which has an actual “climate crisis” section highlighted atop its daily online edition)? Yes, in the mainstream media, you can certainly read about the melting glaciers and surging glacial lake near Juneau, Alaska, or the floods and growing rainy season in northern China, or the stunning heat and fires this summer in Europe, or the Trump administration’s assault on wind power, or the recent unbelievable nights of record temperatures in the Middle East and, if you want, you can add it all up yourself. But don’t wait for our media to do the same, not in the sort of continuous headline-busting fashion that might suit the unfolding disaster we increasingly face on this planet of ours, even if in the weather equivalent of slow motion. And when climate change is indeed in the news, it’s rare indeed — unlike, say, the Covid epidemic once upon a time — for it to be covered on a global basis. When was the last time, for instance, that you saw all the fierce or even record fires on this planet put together in a single article? Yes, I know, on occasion there are indeed overview stories about climate change, but compared to the daily screaming headlines about whatever passing thing Donald Trump did or said days (or even hours) ago, they barely exist.

In news terms, in fact, his second presidency might be considered the news equivalent of an atomic explosion. Think of him, if you want, as President Headline, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, without cease and in a way no other American president has ever truly been treated. In fact, in news terms, his presidency has been distinctly atomic, both figuratively and, in some sense, literally. After all, he’s been determined to ensure that fossil fuels in America (and the world) remain the energy source of choice and, when it comes to his career as president, an explosive financial resource of the never-ending moment. (In that context, no one should be shocked that the fossil-fuel industry invested an estimated $445 million in supporting and influencing his last election campaign and those of his followers in........

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