international society and ecology - progressive vellore

8/11/2019 International Society and Ecology - Progressive Vellore

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52 June 2014 International Ecology and Safety 53June 2014 International Ecology and Safety

Ecological Focus

Scientis ts have discovered acomet travelling towards the Earthat lightning speed which will hit ourplanet in 30 years and would bringdevastations causing floods in coastalareas, killing millions of humansand causing extinction of hundredso f s p e c i e s , t s u n a mis , d a ma g in gcrops and seriously disturbing food

security systems, causing outbreak ofhundreds of epidemics and causingserious health issues, changing rainpatterns and disturbing almost allthe ecological balances of the Earthalong with several other impacts onhuman society. Scientists have alsoestimated that the collision can beaverted if world starts acting now

and would cost 1.6 trillion dollars to world econom y a nnua lly compar edto the loss which would amount to4.9 trillion dollars annually (morethan collective GDP of India andSouth Africa) to the world economy.If the actions to avert the collision aredelayed the incurring cost would keeprising and 97% scientists agree that the

possibility of the collision is extremelylikely with 95% chances of collision.

Above given story is, of cou rse,hypothetical and would easily catchthe attention of media because ofits sensational nature. But the factsand figures quoted above about theimpacts and t ime period are realand have been provided by the UN

agencies on climate change and othersuch independent agencies. Despitethe hypothetical example given abovethe actuali ty of the damages andpossible losses mentioned above arenot questionable. Media around the

world has report ed on climate changeand has somewhat failed to informcommon masses not only about the

seriousness and threats posed by it tohuman existence but also in informingto cope with the changing climate.

It is agreed by the scholarshipthat common masses around the

wor ld se ek to in for m th ems elv esabout the complex problems andissues from the media they haveaccess to and draw meanings to those

Written by Muhammad Shahzad Yousaf (intern) Translated by Liu Chang

Making Sense of ClimateChange: Chinese and IndianMedia Subscribes to GlobalPower Game Narrative


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Ecological Focus

information provided by the mediaby their own frames of referencesto such information and also theframes provided by the media for suchinformation.

Climate change and journal-ism

Climate change f irs t caughtattention of the scientific community

in 1860s when English scientis t John Tynda ll sug ges ted tha t slig htchanges in the composition of gasesin atmosphere could bring changes inclimate. These finding were furthersupported by Swedish physicist Svante

Arr heni us who appro ved Tynda llsclaims and said that emission of gasesas result of industrial revolution couldbring atmospheric changes resultingin cl imate change and doublingthe emission of CO 2 would lead to6O C temperature increase globally

within a cen tur y. An d si nce then, ithas developed into a sound branchof science gauging the impacts ofclimate change and also looking intothe human footprint causing a triggerin climate change globally. Scientistsh a v e g a u g e d c h a n g e s f ro m d a t aemanating from more than a centuryand half. Whereas Chinese claim thatZhu Kezhen, a Chinese scientist,has studied occurrence of climatechange from data systems of ice

depletions managed by the Chineseemperors for almost a thousand yearstime. Both the Chinese and rest ofthe worlds scientific communityhas overwhelmingly agreed uponexistence of c l imate change andabout human footprint triggeringclimate change famously termed asanthropogenic climate change.

D e s p i t e e x i s t e n c e o fcomprehensive science, there have

been doubts in the minds of thepublic especially in western societyand media has played a huge rolein creating that climate of doubtamong common masses. Copenhagenconference on climate change in 2009and some preceding events beforeCopenhagen provided a high point ofcoverage for climate change in mediaaround the globe. Studies assessing thecoverage of climate change by worldmedia have shown that media fromdeveloped world has played a vitalrole in both getting the voice thereand also creating doubts in mindsabout climate change. Progressivenewspapers have although given morespace and time to climate changeadvocates while right wing businessfriendly newspapers and channelsgave voices to skeptics who doubtedexistence of c l imate change andespecially questioned anthropogenicclimate change and denied any roleplayed by the human footprint to

accelerate climate change. Skepticsclaim that despite overwhelminga g re e me n t o f 9 7 % o f s c i e n t i f i ccommunity about existence of climatechange and its anthropogenic natureand threats it poses to humanity, thescience of climate change is not yetsettled where any other science

with such huge agr eeme nt of 97% would autom atically be set tled andaccepted. So, media groups in the

name of balanced reporting providespace and time to skeptics in theircoverage of climate change which hasalso been found disproportionate toskeptics actual existence percentageof only 3 percent among wholescientific community. Studies foundthat American and English mediaprovided 34% of total voices quoted inclimate change reporting to skepticsresulting in decline in number ofpeople believing that climate changeis a threat with number of doubtersincreasing from 45% in 2009 to 55%in year 2013 in United States.

Even though media in developing wo rl d, es pe ci al ly in Ch in a an dIndia, has started parting ways fromdeveloped world media in terms ofcovering climate change as there hasbeen less coverage of skeptics voicesfrom Copenhagen conference onwardsbut still the developed worlds stancehas influenced media coverage ofdeveloping world. Developing worlds

media, take Bangladesh, China, India,and Pakistan for instance, quotes

voi ces fr om int er nat ion al med ia,mostly from England and UnitedStates, causing bringing western orglobal north perspective home andalong with that comes the skeptic

viewpoint of climate change as GlobalTimes of China and Times of Indiafrom India gave space to skeptic viewson their editorial and opinion pages

during 2009 UN climate changeconference. Experts, citing re asons of less but

controversial coverage, say that natureof the climate change is longitudinaland despite the impacts can be seenaround on almost all aspects of lifebut due to the slow nature of climatechange those impacts are mostlyrelated to rather more recent eventsor reasons which make better sensefor both the media and audiences.Such knitting of relationship amongc a u s e s a n d e ff e c t s , e x p e r t s s a y,undermines the efforts to educatecommon people about climate changebut this re lat ionship building isnecessary for media. Experts arguethat media sells sensationalism andanything sensational would get soldbut extremely slow nature of climatechange makes it unfit for the media tocover climate change. Experts claimthat climate change as environmentalrisk is largely invisible, all pervasive,and unprecedented and due to thereason that i t unfi ts the 24 -hournews scheduling, which is decidedby newsworthiness of informationbased on four major e lements oftimeliness, proximity, frequency, andunambiguity, climate change onlyenters the news when it fulfills theseneeds of being newsworthy.

State of Chinese and IndianMedia Coverage

X u Pe i x i , a p r o f e s s o r atCo mmu n ic a t io n Un iv e r s i t y o fChinas journalism school and experton media coverage of climate change,claims that both Chinese and Indiamedia has started parting ways frominternational media on climate changecoverage due to the domestic needs,

especially China being worlds leadingcountry in green businesses andtechnologies has paved the way forbusinesses and media to go advocatefor green ways of l i fe . He ci tesPresident Xis recent comment aboutmoving from Information society tolow carbon society while arguing thatthis would and has already startedleading Chinese businesses and mediaboth towards going green but at

the same time, he acknowledges,that Chinese media quotes voicesfrom western world which bringstheir perspective into climate changecoverage which can be intentional byChinese media too to bring some kindof uncertainty.

Even though the famous ga me offear and disinformation by skepticorganizations heavily funded by oiland gas industry in global north to

win political leaders on their sides hasnot affected the media coverage ofclimate change in developing worldbut political frame still persists asthe most occurring frame in coverageof climate change where a frame insimple word can be termed as overalltilt of a news piece. Framing isactually a theory of media effects byapplying which media have a strongimpact by constructing social realityby framing images of reality in apredictable and patterned way. Massmedia actively set the frames ofreference that readers or viewers useto interpret and discuss public events.Overwhelming majority of politicalframe in Chinese and Indian mediashows that both Chinese and Indianmedia outlets put more attentiontowards power game of climate changein global politics and less attention isgiven to climate change as commonchallenge to humanity.

A re cent study delvin g i nto thecoverage of climate change by Chineseand Indian media during Copenhagenand Doha summits , in 2009 and2012 respectively, reveals that mostlypolitical actors were quoted the mostin news and articles about climatechange while presence of injusticeframe which incites moral indignationand gives voice to those left behindand can be a way of te l l ing the

suffering of those poor communities who ar e fe eling the br unt o f clim ateimpacts but dont have an effective

voice in domest ic or global politic s,has been meagerly present in Chineseand Indian media coverage of tellingclimate change stories. Same studyalso looked through the use physicalfeatures like photos, page connection,size, and editorial placement of thestory as these features explain the

nature of news coverage as showingnarrower picture being episodicin n a tu r e o r i t s h o we d b ro a d e rpicture following thematic styleof coverage and providing narrativeand background information along

with connect ing t he told story to thebroader climate change debate. Andthe study found out that most of newscoverage by both the Chinese andIndian media showed narrower pictureof the events and didnt connect it tothe broader climate change debate andits impacts which tells how narrowand one dimensional coverage is fromChinese and Indian media.

Sayeed Mohammed, a researcherfrom India, who runs a communityled initiative Progressive Vellorefor climate mitigation and adaptationefforts in his dis tr ic t of a northIndian state, says that India is oneof the most vulnerable countries toclimate change. Apart from otherdirect impacts India is easily hit byconflicts due to climate change and hecites irregularities in monsoon rainsrecently which resulted in conflictsover water dis tr ibution not onlyinside the country but also resulted intriggering conflicts with its borderingcountries especially Bangladesh andPakistan. He says that wheneverconflict hits, there is sensationalismin media coverage of these conflicts

and climate change is also mentionednow and then but primarily conflictis presented with more political tiltthan citing climate change as theactual reason behind such conflicts.Such political framing of conflictsundermines actual climate threat andthus downplays the impact. He seesresponse from media should be at leastat two levels, firstly, it should providethe cl imate narrat ive to al l such


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Ecological Focus

stories which are connected to climatechange and secondly, media shouldput more emphasis on educatingmasses about climate change and waysof adaptation and mitigation as itssocial responsibility.

India and Pakistan have longbeen engaged in a confl ic t overKashmir region which resourcerich in water and some minerals.

Al th ou gh , in it ia l re as on of th e

conflict is more of political naturebut climate change fuels this conflicta s c h a n g in g mo n s o o n p a t t e rn shave left both the countries in direneed of water for their agricultureand power generation. Three maintributaries which irrigate vast landsof Pakistan emanate from Kashmirand run th rough Pakistan beforedying down in Arabian Sea. Due tothe recent droughts waterbed levelsunderneath the soil have droppedsharply to a dangerous levels in Indiaand Pakistan both and have given riseto their needs to control waters fromthe conflicted area of Kashmir. Thus,climate change is fueling conflictsin the region bringing instabilityin political landscape of the regionalong with other impacts it causes tocommunities. But climate change isnever presented as a reason of thisand other such conflicts in Indian andPakistani media despite, it is presentedmore of a geographical and politicalproblem than citing climatic natureand aspect of the problem. China andIndia have also locked their horns inborder disputes which initially are notclimate related disputes but because ofthe border areas being resource rich in

water and glacial surfaces and both thecountries are in dire need of water andenergy security for their developmentso, changing climate and its impacts

fuel such disputes and conflicts in theregion which threaten political, social,and economic stability of the region.

Instant threats posed by climatechange to both China and India includechanging rainfall patterns, droughts,torrential rains, alarmingly fallingground water levels, glacial melts, sealevel rise, agriculture and food securityissues, energy security, health problems

and epidemic outbreaks, conflicts,migration and decline in water reservesamong other socio-economic impactscaused and resulting further fromthe deteriorating situations of theabove mentioned problems and boththe countries media have failed inpainting the real picture successfullyfor their masses. Chinese and Indianmedia, while covering climate changein news and programs, brings in risk

and uncertainty while constructingframes. One of the studies cited abovealso discussed that journalists fromdeveloping world or global southeither tend to borrow frames andnarratives constructed by the developed

world journa lists or t hey mos t of tencreate new frames unconsciously. Thisunconscious frame construction by

journalist does not serve the pur poseof effectively informing and educatingmasses as better skills and knowledgeof introducing narratives ( constructingframes) into the news about climatechange can yield much better resultsin not only informing the masses butenabling them to better adapt andmitigate at community levels.

Two experts, interviewed for thearticle, expressed hope that as Chinais moving towards green businessleader of the world in technology andproduction and its businesses turninggreen so media would also pay moreattention better covering the climatechange and they also expressed that

with a business minded lead ership inIndia coming into power, India wouldalso move into the similar direction

with Chin a b y i nteg rati ng busin essand government policies towardssustainable and green society.

Suggestions to improve cov-erage

I n o r d e r t o i m p r o v e t h ecoverage of climate change by mediain developing countries in generaland in China and India specifically,scholars and experts advise a rangeof efforts to be taken. Dr. Xu Peixifrom TV School of CommunicationUniversity, who has authored a bookchapter on climate change coverage

in China and has published workson climate and journalism, suggeststhat journalists should be trainedproperly for reporting about climatechange. He i terated t hat c l imatechange is now embedded into everysingle beat of reporting from politicsto education and from science todomestic and local news and a bettertrained journalist about basic scienceof climate change and also about

the international treaties and lawsregulating climate change can bringmature and insightful perspectiveinto the news informing massesbetter than someone ignorant of allsuch information and untrained inreport ing on cl imate change. Hestresses the need of providing carbonperspective in news, although it hasrecently become a business, but it stillhelps with motivating businesses andcompanies being environment friendlyand carbon conscious and media thuscan play its role better.

There are hundreds of detailedsolutions available in market to notonly cope with climate change andmitigate but also to lead environmentf r i e n d l y a n d e n e rg y e f f i c i e n tlives. Such solutions, detailed andcomprehensive which are accepted bygovernments and meet national andinternational standards, should beintroduced to public more frequentlyand continuously by media in orderto sensitize public towards health andgreen living styles.

Two dominant perspectivesin coverage of c l imate change inmedia are global power struggleand common threat or challenge.Common challenge perspective givesmore space to introducing climatechange as a global and common threatand provides wider range of options

to present stories in ways to bettereducate masses about climate changeand its impacts along with methodsof adaptation so, experts assert thatcommon threat perspective should beemployed by media more as comparedto global power struggle which give anarrow picture of political games only.

We have seen that skeptics findtheir way to coverage of c l imate

change and thus create doubt aboutclimate change not only among thecommon masses but also in the mindsof policy makers as doubtful publiccant demand better policy actionsfrom its policy makers and leaders.So, experts opine that climate changescience should be treated as settledscience and focus of the news coverageshould shift from debating the truthof climate change and questioning its

anthropogenic nature to treating it asa common threat and ways to fightit effectively. Thus, any doubts in theminds should be shunned and climatechange should be accepted as a reality.

One interest ing perspectivethat expert journalis ts suggest tocope with the incapacity of lesstrained journalists and also makingsense of climate impacts is that theyrecommend linking climate impacts

with environmental impacts which aremore obvious and short term in natureas compared to longitudinal and slow

nature of climate change. By linkingclimate impacts with environmentaleffects of short term nature, publiccan easily be motivated to f ight bothenvironmental and climate changerelated problems in order to betterprotect and safeguard future of planetand maintain its ecological balances

which are extremely important for theexistence of life on Earth.

Wh il e re por ti ng th e cli mat e

impacts in certain community anddiscussing solutions in terms ofadaptat ion and mitigation, localknowledge of the community shouldalso be considered. Communitiesliving in their own setting understandtheir problems much better thanoutsiders and for climate change alsocommunities need assistance to betteradapt and mitigate climate impacts.Neglecting their voices completely

whil e c over ing clima te chan ge andimporting a solution to suggest assolution to the problems doesnt

serve the purpose correctly. So, whilereporting communities issues theirlocal solutions and settings should alsobe considered and given voice to.

Conflicts caused or fueled byclimate change should be reported

with the climate per spective attachedto it in order to not only make publicunderstand the situation better andthrough cl imate perspective butit can also help with lessening the

intensification of the conflict and solveit better in peaceful ways by reducingloss to human life and ecology.

B o b I n g l i s , a f o r m e r U Ssenator, while referring to climatechange, serious threats it posed, andskepticism, once told senate, Yourchild is sick, 98 doctors say treat himthis way; two say, No! There is other

way to go. If you wil l go with thetwo, you are taking a big risk for thekid We are on record and ourgrand and great grandchildren aregoing to read this.

Hail storm demolished number of houses inMaharashtra state of India. A woman standing ondebris of her house. (Source 350.org)

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