Mr. Murdoch, Please Make the Wall Street Journal Carbon Neutral
by David Sassoon - Dec 13th, 2007
in
Dear Mr. Murdoch,
Congratulations. Today shareholders will vote to make you the new, proud owner of the Wall Street Journal, one of the best newspapers in the world. It will become part of NewsCorp, your media empire, and I assume, its operations will participate in honoring the commitment you have made to make NewsCorp carbon neutral by 2010.
I am writing to you because I am hoping that you will move the Wall Street Journal to honor the commitment even more in spirit than in fact. What I mean is this.
It is far less important to the world for the Wall Street Journal to offset its carbon emissions -- in fact it is probably inconsequential -- than it is for the newspaper's editorial page to cease its shameful and retrograde opposition to climate action.
On the front page of yesterday's New York Times' business section was an informative article on how you have already started the process of remaking the Journal. I scoured every line to see if there would be mention of a softening of the paper's stance on global warming, but alas, not a word. All it said was that you have been having meetings with Paul Gigot, the editorial page editor. I hope the issue of global warming has been a topic of conversation and correction, and I appeal to you to make an announcement of positive change as the UN climate meetings in Bali come to a close.
Global warming is not merely an environmental issue. It is a business issue of paramount importance, and it is a problem that needs the active effort and leadership of the private sector to be solved. Your new newspaper's opinion carries enormous weight and influence among America's business leaders. Isn't it time for the Wall Street Journal to cease playing the role of chief climate skeptic and obstructionist, and instead to embrace the changes overtaking the global energy economy?
Certainly, the paper's news pages adequately point to this coming transformation as the entire business community is grappling with the issue of how to internalize the cost of carbon in its strategic planning and operations. Why just yesterday, the Journal even carried news of a carbon exchange opening in the first quarter of 2008. It is to be a place where the the world's leading banks, investors, hedge funds, and energy and industrial corporations will leverage the power of financial instruments and markets to address the challenge of global warming.
Wouldn't continued editorial denial of this accelerating reality be astonishingly irresponsible? Wouldn't it betray the public trust now in your hands and undermine the constructive social role that newspapers -- especially the best newspapers -- are expected to play?
Mr. Murdoch, the prize is now yours. The entire planet is now waiting to see whether you are worthy of being its owner.
With all best wishes,
David Sassoon
(See reaction and discussion on NYT's Dot Earth, here.)
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