The New York Times came under fire from many directions for scaling back its environmental coverage earlier this year. The bastion of journalistic integrity did away with its Green Blog – which apparently paid approximately $40,000 annually in freelance expenses – and broke up its environmental reporting team.

Climate change coverage in particular has suffered, which prompted this from Al Gore:

“Simply assuming that this is an interesting controversy that we should check in on occasionally is not correct. The survival of human civilization is at risk. The news media should be making this existential crisis the No. 1 topic they cover.”

The Green Blog’s readership was reportedly not high enough to justify its expense, which sums up the sadly difficult position facing many modern media outlets – especially those still offering print. The paper affirmed its commitment to covering environmental issues and recently hired Coral Davenport, a well-respected environmental reporter. Time will tell if the environmental coverage picks up again, the court of public opinion – and Al Gore – are certainly watching.