is it too late now to say sorry?

Everyone was talking about climate change last week, but it still has nothing on Bieber.

Former Hillary Clinton energy adviser Trevor Houser summarized the grim state of our climate “debate” in a few smart tweets on Wednesday. After Trump dropped from the Paris climate accord last week, Google searches of climate change spiked, hitting new highs — much higher than when the agreement was signed in the first place.

In the US, climate change has never experienced the level of media attention or public interest it received over the past week. pic.twitter.com/NasECeHxFM — Trevor Houser (@TrevorGHouser) June 7, 2017

But, Houser continued, the amount of people expressing interest in the topic is still dismally low — like Justin Bieber pre-apology tour low.

To be clear, climate still has a way to go – its doing about as well as Justin Bieber in a non-album release year. pic.twitter.com/l71r8F9aGN — Trevor Houser (@TrevorGHouser) June 7, 2017

Grist has previously explored why climate change doesn’t often make it into the national conversation in ratings-driven forums like debates. But this tendency of network news to spotlight climate change only after a watershed moment is problematic; because 57 percent of American adults get their news from TV networks, we end up less informed about climate change than we are on J Biebs.