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Good Example of
Good Reporting on Our Environment
By Frank J.
Regan (July 17, 2007)
One of the environmental issues we
have not heard much about this year highlights the importance of how
the environment is portrayed in the media. There have not, to my
knowledge, been any local stories about
West Nile Virus, this year, but that does not mean that this new
disease (actually an old disease, but newly transported here in the
late 1900’s) is going to go away. In fact, climate change
predictions in our area say that we could have more cases of this
disease. This article (
Rise in Cases of West Nile May Portend an Epidemic - New York Times
) in yesterday’s
New York
Times states that we even might be on the verge of an epidemic
of this disease.
The point about the media is that,
as the New York Times is doing, this issue should be brought to the
forefront of our attention each summer at about this time because,
whether there are present cases or not, the possibility that West
Nile Virus will spring up again this year or any year at this time
is good. I have a lot of information about this disease in our area
on this page
West Nile Virus,.
But, while I’m speaking about the
New York Times, I want to commend them for archiving West Nile Virus
free (most of their online articles are not) on this page
West Nile Virus - Health News - The New York Times. My hope is
that all the media in our area will take the New York Time’s lead in
using their powerful influence as a major print media in our country
to bring this issue up at an appropriate time and keep all
information available free and open to the public.
Yearly attention about an issue like
West Nile Virus that may not be what we want to read about, as there
are certainly more compelling things going on in the news, but this
Environmental Issues we should pay attention to whether we like
it or not. There are many non-toxic, behavioral precautions we can
take during the latter part of each summer, and like fire drills at
home and in the office, we should review at this time these
precautions—instead of our usual behavioral towards environmental
problems, ignoring them until they’re overwhelming.
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