The Sunday NYT has the latest in a series of stories that look at the impact of climate change on lives, this time looking at the implication of persistent drought on the American West. It's a big story about a big topic, and coming as it does at at time where Atlanta and the surround area are in the midst of a massive drought which somehow managed to totally sneak up on them, and for which there are no simple answers, or none that are short term. I guess conservation is not just a personal virtue anymore, at least if you are living in Georgia. But talk about publication whiplash, here comes the cover of the newly redesigned Businessweek has a story by Ben Elgin about how the idea that it can be both good and profitable to turn green is not standing up to study. Ouch.
Both these stories fall into the "boiling frog" theory, which, although untrue, makes a great point -- that small changes are often unnoticed until it's too late.
There is a communications corollary to this argument. Today, I get a fair amount of "news" about my local community from the variety of blogs that cover the neighborhoods, in addition to my local papers and whatever news I hear on my commute in. The localism is great, it helps me live more in my community, it makes me feel grounded and connected. At the same time, we could boil a ton of frogs in the information that is *not* collected or covered locally, and as the papers get smaller, the amount that focuses on longer term, national and global issues gets smaller still. This is why I look at hyperlocal news as necessary but not sufficient, and can lay awake nights worrying about who will do a great job in telling the longer term stories that will *never* make it on the evening news. In the U.S., the universe of long term news thinkers is thin and getting thinner -- and I don't believe that blogs, great as they are, will fill the gap.
What will? Well, I was encouraged to see what Paul Steiger is up to in his new investigative journalism news project, which certainly will help fill the void somewhat.
Dave Winer is writing about the future of the newsroom as well. Just to keep up, I'm going to start coding. ;) But in some way, the focus on what the newsroom will look like, or what channels people will use to create/consume information is still living in boiled frog land. The key switch to flip is the action one-- what is the way that people, myself included, will be able to move from receiving information to acting on it, to seeing the impact of our actions as part of that mythical positive feedback loop?
Suggestions? Sing out...