By Diet Simon
Generally speaking, we’re not happy, are we, with the way the media deal with climate change.
We get the disasters, we get the deniers, we get the appealers, we get the scientific stuff way over our heads that we put down after three paragraphs or switch off after 30 seconds on air.
And yet the media are our main source of information on climate change. So how can they do it better?
That question was addressed by more than 1,500 delegates from 95 countries at a forum in Bonn, Germany, from 21 to 23 June this year.
The Global Media Forum, hosted by Deutsche Welle, the German international broadcaster, brought together people from the media, science, politics and business.
A documentation on the three days of workshops has now appeared on the web - http://www.dw-gmf.de/download/GMF_Documentation_2010.pdf - and makes interesting reading for those who want to know this area in depth.
Here’s a selection of the workshop topics:
Can North and South agree on protecting the climate?
- Journalist Laurie Goering cited the need to “erase the notion of North and South as quickly as possible” because the advancing consequences of climate change were neither distant nor remote. “Even if you don’t care about some people starving to death in some parts of the world, the reality is that climate change, if we don’t do something about it, is going to be in your own backyard. It may just take a little bit longer.”
Sex, catastrophe, climate change? Attracting the interest of a media-sated public
- How do you reach a society inundated by information and
entertainment? Attention-grabbing headlines, catastrophe scenarios, sexy pictures, short and snappy sound-bites – can they do justice to a serious issue like climate change?
Communications contributing to Ethiopian wild coffee forest conservation
- Mr Argaw Ashine, the Director of Ethiopia Environment Journalists Association in Addis Ababa explained that Ethiopia has approximately 28 newspapers, most based in Addis Ababa, the biggest with a daily circulation of 22,000 per day. Ashine made clear that in the media reporting climate change and forests should not be seen as an environmental topic only but also includes many other aspects such as human rights and gender. To him it’s an issue about governance at local and international levels. He said it is difficult in Ethiopia to report on certain issues. Journalists face government attempts to obstruct press freedom.
From Copenhagen to Cancun
– Climate cooperation is developing between Europe and China, breaking a pre-Copenhagen taboo on even speaking about these things. Exploring where the most dynamism could come from, Jürgen Maier, Director, Forum on Environment & Development, Germany, who has participated in many frustrating international negotiating processes, stressed an urgent need to shift from the perception that it’s all about concessions, to a focus on opportunities. “The perception of these negotiations is at the moment so stuck in not a win-win, but actually a lose-lose perception and we have to really change that.”
The EU’s role in international climate
- If the EU is serious and wants to play a leading role again, it needs a consistent and committed climate policy to rebuild its credibility. Climate policy can only be a credible international model if it is built on a domestic climate policy, which is foremost energy policy. The EU should focus on the development of an electricity super grid, storage technologies and carbon capture and storage. Only if Europe is successful at this, the Union can urge others in the world to adopt such policies.
Too dry, too technical, not prestigious
– how to inspire excellence in climate change coverage – Because climate change is an economic issue, climate change negotiations are failing, said Chandra Bhushan, Assoc. Director, Center for Science and Environment, India. He said journalists covering the field had to not only know science, but also politics. “But the biggest thing we are worried about is not that our planet is in peril, but that our biggest challenge is to change ourselves. If we want to solve climate change, it is not about technology, it is about us changing.”
Media climate coverage around the world
- Bangladesh has almost become a metaphor for the looming catastrophes of climate change. Only 12 per cent of the voices quoted were women, although women across the world often bear the brunt of climate change consequences. Climate sceptics or deniers were given more space around the Copenhagen event, due to the so-called Climategate, where e-mail exchanges leaked from climate scientists at Cardiff University.
Understanding and reporting the psychology of climate change
- Human beings are programmed by evolution to pay attention to foods and activities immediately central to their survival – like sex, sugar, fat and salt – rather than to longer-term, intangible and distant threats. Which is why it is so hard to engage the media and audiences with the complexities of climate change.
Public, scientific and media understanding of climate change – how can media professionals communicate climate change?
- How can young media professionals from all over the world learn in their vocational education to communicate the complexity and ambiguity of climate change? How can they deal with hidden agendas and hype?
How to make an Oscar-winning movie on climate change
Four filmmakers and one NGO with experience promoting ecodocumentaries focused on the challenges of making movies with ecological themes and proposed strategies for reaching audiences and moving them to take action. It is still a struggle to find money to make an eco-documentary.
Fragile environments in the Himalayas
– the responsibility of the local media - People in the Himalayas associate climate change with floods, landslides, rising temperature and land degradation, drying water sources, food shortages, melting snow, shrinking glaciers. These have the most disastrous impact on their livelihoods. One problem is a lot of indigenous knowledge being lost.
Shifting societal awareness from climate change to global change
– It’s important to present not only global but also local issues. A Dutch phone-in radio show called “Nature Calendar” brings climate change issues to the back yards of the people. The programme, which has attracted an audience of 200,000, explains different trends in people’s gardens, such as the early blossoming of flowers and arrival of birds. It has proved to be an effective way to convey climate issues to the general public in fun and informative ways.
How to deal professionally with climate skepticism
- The panel was to explore the dangers and pitfalls for journalists reporting on climate change and to deliver ideas on dealing with the challenge of reporting “climate skepticism”. It’s an area in which journalists face a dilemma – they are trained to present a neutral or balanced position by reporting both sides of an issue. But given the near-unanimity in the scientific community on the reality, causes and effects of climate change, these journalistic dogmas distort the truth. Presenting “both sides” has given some of the general public the wrong impression that scientific debate rages on, which is delaying political action. Since that is precisely what the “skeptics” want, journalists have unwittingly assisted their strategy to conceal facts, distort science and discredit scientists.
Climate change and security policy – does energy autonomy increase security?
- Measures to increase energy security and ensure free access to resources not only make economic sense, but also conform to climate protection and are essential to foreign and security policy. Developing countries poor in resources gain in political security and increase prospects for economic growth by switching to a low-carbon path which builds on an autonomous, diversified, de-centralized and efficient renewable energy structure.
A problem of our lifestyles?
- Media can be key to influencing consumer behaviour and fostering more climate-friendly lifestyles. The approach of “edutainment”, i.e. using emotional, affective media strategies, is evolving as an important tool for reaching mainstream consumers – like addressing climate change in a daily soap or in reality-TV shows with stars who try to shift towards a sustainable lifestyle.
A fundamental debate between rival energy sources
– An ambitious initiative by 34 companies is under way to install concentrating solar power plants in the Sahara Desert along with a super-grid of high voltage transmission lines to supply electricity to countries in Europe and Africa. “Desertec” aims to supply 15% of Europe’s total energy demand by 2050.
The risks and challenges of environmental reporting
- In many countries extreme and sometimes violent reprisals against reporters have been reported in the wake of stories on environmental degradation. Few journalists have done more to document illegal logging and other encroachments on the Brazilian Amazon than Lúcio Flávio Pinto. But, in response to his stories, private companies, government officials and other actors have filed more than 30 lawsuits against him in courts whose integrity is challenged.
How can media professionals communicate climate change?
- The lack of effect might not have much to do with an inadequate explanation of climate change, but with people’s fear to change their lifestyle if they acknowledge climate change is happening. A worldwide shortage of skilled journalists to report on climate change was seen as a threat for particularly developing countries.
Climate protection pays
- Salim Amin, Chairman of Camerapix, a big African media company, argued that it is especially problematic that African journalists report on topics of all fields while needing more specialised training. To reach and to sensitise people for climate protection calls for more exciting presentation of environmental topics, he said. Peter Seidel from the Cologne daily newspaper, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, noted that financial cutbacks killed jobs for environmental experts and German journalists frequently had to cover a wide range of subjects as well. In general, he emphasised, climate change sold well as a media topic in Germany.
Picturing climate change – Is there a conflict sensitive approach?
- Conflict sensitive reporting should become a major criterion for reporting on climate change. Also motion pictures will become more and more eye catchers. There are many new ways for photographers.
Replacing oil with renewables?
- The limiting factor in Europe for the production of biofuels is the accessibility of biomass. Beside the increased land use – including land where so far crops couldn't be raised - the use of residues and waste can be very interesting for the production of cellulosic ethanol, the so called second generation of biofuels.
Social advertising and campaigning
- Children are not just aware of ecological problems, but proactively take part in improving our planet and influencing peers to participate as well.
Conflict sensitive reporting in The Philippines – covering civil war and natural disasters
– Conflict-sensitive journalism is a new concept with tough requirements. It was developed by journalists covering conflicts, has refined definitions of quality and created an improved understanding of what is good. It aims at reinforcing the traditional values of journalism as well as its independence. It is an evolution of journalism whose tools are still a work in progress.
Covering climate change in West Africa: An exchange between journalists and scientists
- Edward Kwame Aklade, a reporter from Ghana, said Ghanaian media haven’t covered climate change in the country sufficiently. He sees a need to gather information not only from the urban areas but also from the peripheral regions. He sees an onus on the media to involve those who have no opportunity to tell their problems with a changing environment. Benjamin Kofi Nyarko, lecturer, University of Cape Coast, Accra, Ghana, emphasized the need for a dialogue between scientists doing research on climate change aspects and the public. The scientists in Ghana generate qualitative knowledge on the impact of climate change in West Africa. In his opinion the media are key mediators between scientists and the public to spread information about research findings, but don’t do this well enough yet.
Traditional politics at the crossroads
– With countries like China and India becoming major emitters, all climate negotiations need to implement the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities". “India is one of the first countries which came out with a national action plan to combat climate change. As against other countries, our homework internally is being done diligently. But when it comes to the international level, India tends to be critical and a bit slow.”
Climate change and armed conflict – possibilities to make a difference
– Among the members of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), an international network of organisations working on conflict prevention and peacebuilding, it is becoming clearer by the day that there seems to be an undeniable link between climate change and armed conflict.
Religion, climate change and the media
- "No religion has an edge over another as far as their attitude towards nature is concerned," according to Indian environmentalist, Ken Gnanakan. "We need to differentiate religion as a doctrine, a hierarchy and spirituality, which is an inner attitude and motivation at the heart of the human beings. It is at the individual and spiritual level that things must evolve." Gnanakan sees a need for a global religion that would have environment as its centre – a spiritual attitude towards nature, creation and resources which are believed to be God given needs to develop. Religions must work together on the concept of "stewardship": managing and protecting creation.
Changing land use in the climate change debate and negotiations
- In many of the countries affected by climate change, smallholder agriculture is the mainstay. It provides employment, social cohesion, and economic growth. Therefore, asking people to change their livelihoods by doing business differently presents a risk for farmers.
Coverage vs. advocacy – Does the media guide or reflect cultural shift?
- Politicians and journalists are not really prepared to irritate their audience or constituents by claiming that changes are necessary. The problem is not a cognitive one of understanding climate change the problem is the readiness to take the consequences in policy and individual behaviour.
Regional aspects of climate change adaptation?
- The “glue” for the linkage of regional actors are without doubt the local media. Media are crucial to acceptance and willingness of stakeholders to actually join forces and adapt to climate change. To make adaptation happen is very much dependant on how the topic is communicated and implemented.
Environmental migration and conflict
- Increasing the efforts on adaptation and mitigation is much more important than focusing on the potential conflict relevance of climate change. This holds especially true for developing countries, where the rapidly growing cities need to become both low-carbon and resilient.
Adaptation and poverty reduction: Combined forces or a fight against the current?
- We have to learn to live with less so that everyone else can live. Weather-driven natural catastrophes have increased from about 400 per year to around 900 a year over the past 30 years, 85% of fatalities have been from the poorest groups, only two percent of the poorest benefited from insurance payouts. Women have a central role in adaptation and poverty reduction.
Establishing and financing an international climate change regime
- The fight over climate change will be lost or won in Asia and the Pacific, because the region is a major contributor to emissions and most vulnerable to climate change impacts.
Witnessing the human cost of climate change
- How can journalists continue to report effectively and with insight when they and their own families and communities are battered by an environmental catastrophe? Three seasoned environment and health reporters from Ethiopia, Haiti and the United States explained the challenge of witnessing the human cost of climate change.
Regional research, global applications
- Flora and fauna influence each other reciprocally: fewer bees and bumblebees will mean a reduced level of pollination, which in turn will reduce the amount of fruits and seeds of many plants. Climate change will also alter the parameters for agriculture. The loss of fertile soil, the decline in water accessibility, and the resulting necessity to increase productivity make it abundantly clear: ecological consequences also have considerable economic consequences.
Why climate justice bears a woman’s face
- What brought us to this point, why do women suffer the most, the solutions they can offer and therefore why women must be asked and heard. The aftermath of the tsunami that hit Indian Ocean countries saw a very disproportionate ratio of women and men killed by the floods in Aceh Basar (four times more women than men!), forced marriages in India and increased incidents of trafficking in the region.
Ways to a low-carbon society
- Pumping systems can contribute significantly to carbon reduction. The energy savings potential is huge. They contribute largely to making renewably produced energy more efficient and less costly. And their ability to produce energy is high. “The most interesting story is that the ecological requirements meet exactly the economic interest of companies and industries.”