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The Forum > Article Comments > Poor countries' media must tackle climate change > Comments

Poor countries' media must tackle climate change : Comments

By James Fahn, published 24/9/2008

Climate change reporting in developing countries is woefully inadequate because too often editors and writers lack expertise.

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This discussion gives me the opportunity to thank Andrew S for his interesting comment on my ‘One hundred years of drought and flooding rains’ article (the last comment at http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7865 ). It is useful to know that the ‘support’ that puts the Institution of Engineers on Sams’s list ‘is by no means by popular vote or peer review amongst the members ... [but] has been unilaterally forced upon [them] by the management team.’ I know that this is also true of some of the other bodies on the list.

A minor point on the first comment on this article - the World Bank is not an NGO (non-governmental organisation), but an intergovernmental organisation. And of course the IPCC is also an intergovernmental organisation - or, strictly speaking, a subsidiary of two intergovernmental organisations
Posted by IanC, Wednesday, 24 September 2008 2:16:19 PM
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Mr. Right: "Sams doesn’t believe in adapting; he merely pulls out THE LIST. Perhaps he thinks reproducing it is going have some effect. He drags it out every time climate change is mentioned."

The list will indeed be "dragged out" each time someone drags out the same old tedious propaganda that there is no consensus on anthropomorphic climate change, or that it is a "religious" or "extremist" view. It is both accurate and appropriate, and saves time quashing the dogma.

mhaze: "I don't agree that NASA as an organisation has said, or is able to say, that they have a view this way or that."

I think it is pretty clear:

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/ ... "'Global warming stopped in 1998,' has become a recent mantra of those who wish to deny the reality of human-caused global warming. The continued rapid increase of the five-year running mean temperature exposes this assertion as nonsense"

mhaze: "But more importantly, the Russian Academy of Science (which is on the list) has just recently come out specifically saying the IPCC has got it wrong."

If you could just link to their official statement then? In June 2008, the national science academies of Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, *Russia*, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States signed this joint declaration support the findings of the IPCC:

http://www.nationalacademies.org/includes/climatechangestatement.pdf
Posted by Sams, Wednesday, 24 September 2008 2:42:19 PM
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Human Capital (and Social Capital protection) is neglected by business and government agenties world-wide. They create the "knowledge and capacity gaps" which result in a dis-empowerment of people living in communities (stuck) with poor resources.

While I was on assignment in Vietnam I found the traditional services in Primary Health, Agriculture and Education at village levels highly in tune with what is needed to emancipate and sustiain well-being. Vietnam is a perfect example because the nation's people, particulary in the south have the most innovative, creative energy and enthusiaism (compared to many other places I have been) on the planet.

So I agree James Fahn, There are millions of people with knowledge and a wealth of potential journalists out there eager.... 'It's time to help them.'

"There are plenty of ways to assist... New media organisations can be established to focus specifically on climate change and its impacts, particularly using digital platforms. Working journalists can be trained", and senior editors need to be better persuaded, to improve their coverage."

For example, below is a link Mohammad Ziaul Ahsan, someone I know from Bangladesh. He has some Law studies behind him and a wealth of inspiration and knowledge yet... he struggles to put his energy into productive areas where he can influence and draw a wage. There is just no proper framework, serious follow through except through training opportunies in some areas indirectly funded by NGO agencies associated with the UN.... but nothing after that.

http://profiles.takingitglobal.org/osduy

It is my view that the West has alot to learn from the under-developed world and in terms of capacity, we need to get the energy of administrative business and governemnts to focus from the ground-up. It is a systemic cultural problem in many parts of the world, be it in the developed or developing regions.

http://www.miacat.com/
.
Posted by miacat, Wednesday, 24 September 2008 2:48:58 PM
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A good article and a new perspective. Unfortunately as some replies here show, there's no point having an informed and literate community when willful ignorance is rife.

Environmental awareness in the developing world is sorely needed. Witness the unconstrained development taking place in sensitive areas in much of South America (unauthorised logging and clearing of land), Asia (industrial development with no allowance made for the health of nearby residents), India (where nuclear plants leak and waste is unchecked), and so on. Lack of environmental awareness is a large problem and reflects the level of education generally.

The era of treating your surroundings like a giant magic pudding are over, peoples.

In Australia and much of the developed west where general awareness of environmental issues is strong, we can afford the luxury of supporting a degree of ignorance in the community - OLO being a good example.
Posted by bennie, Wednesday, 24 September 2008 3:40:14 PM
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Sams, seems only able to deliver the subconscious message of “simply believe, and it will be so” with his lists that indicate only man vs message and never the message vs evidence. What this attitude creates is nothing more than a cultural codification of ancient magical thinking where it becomes a heresy to ask for evidence. Evidence simply becomes irrelevant, meaning that something like water vapour coming from a cooling tower gets exaggerated in the media as CO2 emissions to scare the Oz public. This is such a serious issue and if there is no evidence then it is a giant hoax and if evidence is falsified it is fraud.

AGWers cannot concentrate on the message vs evidence because there is NO evidence. Our legal system can only work on evidence and just about everything else works this way because we live our lives continually immersed in cause and effect situations.
Posted by Keiran, Wednesday, 24 September 2008 4:33:32 PM
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It's about more than CO2 Keiran, but if you're interested to see when CO2 levels began rising you can correlate it to humans starting to burn fossil fuels as part of the industrial revolution. The rise is far greater than any other rise in the last 800,000 years or so.

Check out the data from Arctic ice-cores

http://www.daviesand.com/Choices/Precautionary_Planning/Closer_Look/index.html

It's pretty clear that we are experiencing a very dramatic increase that started at around 1800. No science is perfect, but the evidence certainly points to a large human contribution to this.

Our CO2 emmissions and our reduction of the forests of the world, which help maintain the balance, has now got to the point where the artic ocean is warming (it is far more sensitive than the Antarctic, but if you check Antarctic ice-cover you will see that it is already reducing early and is well below average) and this is releasing trapped methane from the sea-floor that is bubbling to the surface in numerous places throughout the arctic. So, the argument about who made the CO2 is becoming irrelevant, as it is pretty likley that the warming of the arctic will now continue under its own steam (thanks to us).

To stand up and say it wasn't us, flies in the face of when the CO2 rise started, the sources of CO2 that have existed only after the industrial revolution and the increasing use of fossil fuels, the reduction of natural CO2 sinks such as forests, and what we know about how CO2 contributes to the warming of the atmosphere, is like someone being caught red-handed with stolen gear and saying "it's got nothing to do with me, yer Honour."
Posted by Phil Matimein, Wednesday, 24 September 2008 4:59:04 PM
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