Why? Because this country thrives on sex and sensationalism.
Disaster and pain.
Gossip and reality TV.

They also lose interest just as quickly. The concerns you mentioned, they believe, are things that "THEY" should take care of. Not them.

Half a million people died in the tsunami, one of the highest death toll natual disasters in the history of the written word. Do you hear a peep about it now?

I thought not.