When was the last time you heard about climate change?

Maybe a friend brought it up recently in conversation or you saw a poster encouraging you to recycle.
Perhaps a professor discussed it in class or you came across a post about it on Facebook.

You've also probably seen the alarming documentaries and read the frightening articles. Needless to say, it is an issue that most of us are aware exists. However, what many of us are unaware of is just how imminent this threat is, and how little is being done to bring attention to it.

A string of recent studies have underscored that our planet is on thin ice, both literally and figuratively.
According to an August report by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, a government-sponsored research agency, the amount of sea ice in the Arctic has fallen to its lowest level on record.

The rate of ice-loss is accelerating, and if this goes unchecked, worldwide sea levels are expected to rise by as much as three feet by the end of the century.

This is a truly frightening fact because 13 of the world's 20 largest cities lie on a coast.

Many people around the world are already feeling the effects of climate change.

Based on a 2005 study published in the scientific journal Nature, 150,000 yearly deaths and five million illnesses can be attributed to rising temperatures and the diseases spread by them, a statistic that is also embraced by the World Health Organization.

So why isn't our country taking a serious stand to tackle this problem?

Why has the environmental movement that rose to national glory roughly six years ago faded away?

Why are the environmental issues that used to be at the forefront of political and social dialogue now only referred to in passing?

The media is largely to blame.

A study from Media Matters for America, a nonprofit research group, found that since 2009, a year in which Congress passed a climate bill and a major international climate conference took place in Copenhagen, the amount of climate change coverage on the Sunday shows and nightly news has declined tremendously. Between 2009 and 2011, Sunday show coverage of climate change fell 90 percent, while nightly news coverage fell by 72 percent.

In fact, CBS' Face the Nation covered climate change for a meager total of just four minutes over the past three years.

Shockingly enough, despite this lack of media coverage, a 2011 Gallup poll indicates that 43 percent of Americans feel that "the media exaggerates the seriousness" of climate change.

A report issued last month by DARA, an international humanitarian aid group, has been in the spotlight because of its startling conclusion that if the world fails to act on climate change, nearly 100 million people will die by 2030.

However, this report has been highly criticized for exaggeration, and its calculations have been drawn into question.

As evidenced by the hype around the DARA report, this may be due to the media's tendency to sensationalize stories.

Climate change coverage that depicts doomsday scenarios, like those mentioned in the DARA study, attracts more viewers and attention than coverage of specific scientific details.
For the most part, politicians have stopped discussing the issue.

Throughout this year's presidential campaign climate change has almost never been explicitly mentioned.

The creation of "green jobs" is usually the only environmental topic brought up, with the candidates emphasizing only how these jobs would stimulate the economy, not help the planet.

Moreover, many conservative politicians have discredited climate change as a myth or remain skeptical of its existence despite consensus in the scientific community. The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Republican John Boehner, said in a 2009 interview that "the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical." Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann called climate change a "manufactured science" at a 2011 campaign event.

Even with the limited discussion of the issue in this election, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has made his priorities clear, saying in an interview last month, "The reason I'm in this race is to help people. I'm not in this race to slow the rise of the oceans or to heal the planet. I'm in this race to help the American people."

These views have permeated through American society.

An ongoing Washington Post-Stanford University study reveals that 25 percent of Americans believe that the world's temperature is "probably not" increasing.
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In 2006, only 13 percent held that view

Despite the controversy around the DARA report, the sentiment remains and the truth is still inconvenient.

Neither the media nor the politicians are taking any comprehensive action to bring climate change to the forefront of their discussions.

Politicians should know that there are Americans out there who care about preserving the environment just as much as preserving American jobs, and the media should be aware that there is a market for accurate environmental reporting. We cannot keep heading down the road we are on without suffering the consequences.
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