Burning issue: a changing climate, a changing media

Climate change is no longer a distant blip on the public radar but a looming reality featuring in news headlines, political debates, and mainstream films. As global warming and climate change pose more immediate threats, the media have had to adapt their coverage to capture the scientific and social implications of a worldwide challenge. Lezette Engelbrecht explores how a changing environment is changing the media.

“The science is clear. Climate change is happening. The impact is real. The time to act is now.” These four short sentences from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the Bali convention last year said it all. Yet, media coverage of climate change has not been as pithy or precise, for various reasons.
Earlier reporting on global warming and climate change was marked by a degree of caution, as journalists wavered between raising the alarm and sounding a false one. A 1999 Time magazine article speaks about “the potential perils of climate change”, “spotty temperature records” and “nagging doubts”. It echoes the hesitant tone in many South African newspapers in the past decade, with reports of it being “too early” to draw conclusions from “preliminary” and “speculative” evidence.

Climate change refers to significant changes in systems like the atmosphere, ocean circulation and weather patterns over a prolonged period of time. These changes can result from natural causes, but there has been growing concern over the impact of human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, on the state of the climate. As debates surrounding the severity of this influence raged, the media were challenged with reporting on widely divergent opinions and findings from a variety of specialists. Jorisna Bonthuys, environmental reporter at Die Burger, said in an email interview that many journalists’ scientific knowledge was relatively limited in the past, making it difficult for them to properly assess the various claims being made.

The journalistic principle of objectivity also resulted in early attempts to “get the other side”, by including alternative explanations for global warming and arguments from climate denialists. “Too much attention was given for a long time to climate sceptics in the name of greater balance,” says Bonthuys. “This was in relation to evidence from the large group of mainstream scientists about global warming.” Fiona Macleod, an environmental consultant for the Mail&Guardian, said in a telephonicinterview that reporting on climate change is challenging because it is technical in nature and can seem boring. As Celia Brayfield wrote in the London Times in 2000: “Climate change is a subject that will not reduce to three bullet-points and a neat solution.”

The green age cometh

Dramatic weather events like Hurricane Katrina and decisive scientific reports have thrust climate issues into the popular consciousness, with related news items appearing more frequently in the media. “Stories on climate change are now making front pages and lead headlines whereas a few years ago they weren’t always taken seriously by many readers and editors,” says Bonthuys. David Parry-Davies, editor of the information and networking site Enviropaedia, said in a telephonic interview that Al Gore’s 2006 documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, was pivotal in raising public awareness about climate change. “Before that it was seen as an alarmist ‘greeny’ issue,” says Parry-Davies.

As the realities surrounding climate change become more imminent, a growing sense of urgency has arisen regarding the earth’s resources.“There is a greater level of eco-anxiety,” says Macleod. “News reporting in newspapers and television make it clear that the planet is in trouble and ordinary people want to know what they can do.”

Recent concerns about food, water and energy shortages have also put renewable energies and methods of saving in the spotlight. Macleod, who is the editor of several lifestyle publications in the HomeGrown Magazines group, says reader surveys show that people are interested in eco-friendly lifestyles. Bonthuys feels this is a positive development, as “changes to the status quo will only happen once people seriously adapt their consumption and behaviour patterns.”

Greater and more compelling scientific evidence has also contributed to increased coverage of climate issues. In November last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international body of top scientists, released the Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change. The report, released by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Valencia, Spain, stated that warming of the climate was “unequivocal” and warned that continued greenhouse gas emissions at current levels would induce many changes in the global climate system.

Widespread scientific consensus that humans are causing increased warming has resulted in a media focus on taking action. “There is definitely a strong move towards providing people with solutions,” says Macleod. Yolandi Groenewald, environmental reporter at the Mail&Guardian, advocates a multi-pronged approach. “We have to give the scientific facts, the human tragedies that occur as a result of climate change and tips on how to save energy,”she said in an email interview.

Recently, there has been a shift from reporting on more immediate weather-related incidents to longer-term social, economic and political impacts. “Climate change has moved to the top of the world’s political agenda,” says Groenewald. “It has become more than just an environmental topic.”

Bonthuys agrees, citing the fact that climate change is now being discussed at high-level forums such as the UN Security Council and G8 nation summits.

Consequently, business and finance sectors are also taking note of environmental concerns, which is reflected in business pages and supplements focused on ways industries and consumers can adapt to climate change.

In some cases, the message is less about curbing consumption and more about implementing preventative policies. In recent years, the implications of climate change for developing countries have gained increased media attention. Africa is one of the regions that will be severely affected in terms of resources, food availability and disease, but is poorly equipped to deal with these challenges.

“There is a need to inform people that it will be the poorest of the poor who will be first and hardest hit by climate change,” says Parry-Davies.

The day after tomorrow

Ban Ki-moon has described climate change as “the defining challenge of our age”, and the media will have to keep adapting as future scientific, political and social developments arise. Macleod says journalists will still play an informative role, but if efforts at addressing climate change are unsuccessful, there will also be more reporting on consequent disasters and weather changes.

Bonthuys, who received a Mondi award for her reporting on the build-up to the Bali convention, would like to see correspondents being sent directly to report on big international climate conferences. “Due to financial constraints, almost all newspapers depend on news agencies like Sapa and Reuters for their coverage of these kinds of events. Agency stories often have a pre-determined European angle, and fail to provide local context.”

A lack of localised content may be why environmental journalism is not as much of a force in the country as in some overseas media. “It seems South Africans are more interested in having politics and sleaze on their front pages than environmental stories,” says Groenewald.

Another challenge in reporting on climate change is the perceived lack of immediacy. “If you tell people that something is going to affect them in 20 or 10 years, or even one year, it’s not that easy for them to absorb,” says Macleod. Parry-Davies feels the problem is not a lack of information but a lack of will. He argues that the public have until very recently avoided looking at environmental issues because the media have painted a doom and gloom scenario.

“People are failing to act for two reasons: a feeling of helplessness because they are being bombarded with information that is not empowering, and the scale of the problem. The issues are so huge it’s like standing at the base of a mountain. The message needs to change.”

Groenewald admits that the media can sometimes over-dramatise stories to make climate change more sensational. “It is critical to report factually. We have to educate South Africans not only about the effects of climate change, but about the players, the science and what the future holds, as well as changing our citizens’ lifestyles.”

In a telephonic interview, John Yeld, environmental writer for the Cape Argus, said the print media will continue to play an important role. “I think for a fair number of people it is their major, and in some cases only, source of information about climate change.”

Upon entering a decade in which climate change predictions are set to become realities, the media face a challenge similar to that confronting the political leaders, policy makers and citizens it informs.
It will require changed messages, changed mindsets, and changed methods of living. A challenge succinctly captured by H.G. Wells in A mind at the end of its tether: “Adapt or perish, now as ever, is Nature’s inexplorable imperative.”