Transcript The Media and Climate Change (Detjen)

“The Media and Climate Change”
“Journalism in a 24/7 World:
Decision Making for the Online Editor”
Knight Digital Media Center
University of Southern California
Oct. 2, 2007
Jim Detjen
Knight Professor of Journalism
Director, Knight Center for Environmental Journalism
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Climate change is not a new
issue -- but the scope of the
changes occurring now is
unprecedented in modern
history.
The Earth’s Climate Has Changed
Throughout Earth’s History
It is caused by:
• Changes in Earth’s Orbit -- Ice Ages
• Changes in Sun’s Intensity
• Volcanic Activity - Mt. Pinatubo in 1991
• Increases in greenhouse gases (air pollutants
such as carbon dioxide, methane, etc.) given off
by human activities.
• Human activities are accelerating the
“greenhouse effect”
What is Global Warming?
Increased temperatures caused by a
buildup of carbon dioxide and other
“greenhouse gases” in the
atmosphere. Radiant heat from the sun
is trapped by this blanket of gases and
temperatures gradually rise.
Greenhouse effect causes:
• Venus to be too hot
• Mars to be too cold
• Earth has been the “Goldilocks
Planet” -temperatures “just right” -- until recently
During the next 100 years the planet’s surface temperatures could
increase up to 11 degrees – causing coastal flooding, more severe
storms and dramatic changes in forests, agriculture, wildlife, human
health, the economy, and much else.
A Core Belief:
Good Environmental
Reporting is Based on
Accurate Science
Scientific findings come from:
• IPPC -- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change
• Created in 1988 by World Meteorological
Organization and the United Nations
Environmental Program
• Includes 2,500 of the World’s top scientists on
climate change
• Most recent report issued in 2007
Direct Observations of Recent Climate
Change Show Worrisome Trends:
Global mean
temperature is rising
Global average
sea level is rising
Northern hemisphere
Snow cover is
decreasing
Global temperatures are increasing
Warmest 12 years:
1998,2005,2003,2002,2004,20
06,
2001,1997,1995,1999,1990,20
00
The Arctic has warmed twice as fast
as the rest of the Globe.
Warming in the Arctic is
double that for the globe
from 19th to 21st century and
from late 1960s to present.
Arctic warming threatens Inuit communities
and wildlife such as the polar bear.
Snow cover and Arctic sea ice are decreasing
Spring snow cover
shows 5% drop
during 1980s
Arctic sea ice
area decreased by
2.7% per decade
A melting
iceberg in
Alaska
Glaciers and frozen ground are receding
Increased Glacier retreat
since the early 1990s
Area of seasonally frozen
ground in Northern
Hemisphere has decreased
by 7% from 1901 to 2002
Sea level rises threaten:
• Maldives and other island nations are
threatened with their survival
• Bangladesh, India, China, Indonesia,
Netherlands, United States and other
countries with low lying coastal cities face
serious challenges
Heat waves are increasing: an example
Extreme Heat Wave
Summer 2003
Europe
Rising temperatures:
• Will greatly affect millions of people who
live in cities around the world
• Have a greater impact on the young, the
old and the poor
• Will greatly affect people in tropical areas
where many of the world’s largest cities
are located
Patterns of rainfall are changing
• The frequency of heavy rain and snow has increased over
most land areas
• Drying in the Sahel, the Mediterranean, southern Africa
and parts of southern Asia.
• More intense and longer droughts observed since the
1970s, particularly in the tropics and subtropics.
• Significantly increased precipitation in eastern parts of
North and South America, northern Europe and northern
and central Asia.
Drought is increasing many regions
Mainly decrease in rain over
land in tropics and subtropics,
but enhanced by increased
atmospheric demand with
warming
The most important
spatial pattern (top) of
the monthly Palmer
Drought Severity Index
(PDSI) for 1900 to
2002.
The time series (below)
accounts for most of
the trend in PDSI.
Heavy rainfalls are increasing over many land areas
Regions of disproportionate changes in heavy
(95th) and very heavy (99th) precipitation
North Atlantic hurricanes are increasing
N. Atlantic
hurricane record
best after 1944
with aircraft
Marked increase
after 1994
SST
surveillance.
Global number and
percentage of
intense hurricanes
is increasing
Global warming threatens many
plants and animals:
• Many ecologists say we are facing an extinction
crisis not seen in 65 million years
• Threatened animals include polar bears, leopard
seals, penguins, bowhead whales, many
species of frogs and toads, many birds and
many mammals
• Potentially great impacts on many species of
plants
• Huge implications for forestry and agriculture
What is the economic impact?
• Stern Report in October 2006 said global climate
change could cause world’s GDP to decline by
20%.
• That investing 1% in GDP per year in efforts to
halt this could prevent most of this impact.
• Failure to do so could cause “major disruption to
economic and social stability…on a scale similar
to those associated with the great wars and the
Depression” of the 1930s.
Climate change has and will
affect political stability:
• Decline of Mayan civilization, Easter
Island, Greenland and elsewhere
• Extended drought is currently creating
major starvation in Sudan
• Climate change will create political
winners and losers
Potentially great health impacts:
• Global warming expands the range of
mosquitoes and other insects, which in
turn spread diseases
• More than 30 new diseases, such as West
Nile Virus, have emerged during past 25
years
• Other diseases, such as tuberculosis, are
increasing worldwide
Impacts of climate change are
affected by other long-term
environmental and social
trends
Mass media’s interest in
climate change has
dramatically increased
Examples of recent interest:
• Movies such as Waterworld (1995) The
Day After Tomorrow (2004), An
Inconvenient Truth (2006) and Arctic Tale
(2007)
• TV shows include Star Trek, Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles, South Park
• Novels such as Michael Crichton’s “State
of Fear”
News coverage has increased:
• Increase documented in newspaper
coverage in Europe, Japan, and USA
• Major cover articles in Time, Economist,
Science, Nature, National Geographic and
others
• Increased coverage by radio and TV
stations and on the Internet
Why is this a difficult story to cover?
“Climate Change doesn’t fit the traditional norms
of journalism.”
-- Andy Revkin,
environmental writer,
New York Times
Climate change:
• Has enormous global implications at a time
when many news organizations have reduced
international coverage
• Deals with long term, gradual changes while
most news media focus on daily events
• Scientific uncertainties are still significant
• The science of climate change is complex and
requires specialized knowledge by journalists
Journalists have traditionally used a ‘political
model’ to report about uncertainty:
• Journalists don’t have the time and knowledge
to know what’s correct
• Report both sides of an issue
• Let the readers decide
Balance is Bias: Research by Naomi
Oreskes in Science Magazine
• Of 928 peer-reviewed articles dealing with climate
change in scientific journals during past 10 years, 0%
expressed doubt about the cause of global warming.
• Of 636 articles about climate change in N.Y. Times,
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street
Journal during the past 14 years, 53% expressed doubt
as to the cause of global warming.
Journalists must deal with powerful
disinformation campaigns:
• Exxon Mobil and other oil, coal and utilities companies
have invested in public relations campaigns to raise
doubts.
• Goal is to “reposition global warming as theory, rather
than fact,” according to author Ross Gelbspan.
• Similar techniques used by tobacco industry 40 years
ago.
Interest in environmental issues
waxes and wanes
• Increases following accidents and disasters such
as:
• Three Mile Island (1979) and Chernobyl (1986)
nuclear power plant accidents
• Bhopal, India accident (1984)
• Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (1989)
• Hurricane Katrina (2005)
What is the role of a journalist?
• To accurately inform the public about
issues that affect readers, viewers and
listeners
• To write the first draft of history
• To investigate government, business and
powerful special interests
• To serve as a watchdog
• To engage the public
An example of one
investigative environmental
journalist:
NEW ORLEANS after
Hurricane Katrina in 2005
Mark Schleifstein of the
New Orleans TimesPicayune accurately
forecast these problems –
three years before Katrina
Why are environmental
journalists important?
Most of what the public knows about science and
the environment comes from the news media.
● Television -- 80 percent
● Newspapers --
50 percent
● The Internet --
20 percent
● Radio --
18 percent
● Source: Pew Research Center, October 2003
Rising Environmental Concerns:
Percentage of Americans who say these environmental issues are a "serious
problem:"
93 % air pollution
92 % water pollution
89% deforestation
83 % global warming
83 % extinction of wildlife
33% say the quality of the environment is good or excellent
65 % say the quality of the environment is fair or poor
Source: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy
March 2007 Nationwide survey of 1,000 adults
Environmental Journalism helps combat
scientific illiteracy
• 1/3 of the public doesn’t know what a molecule is
• 2/3 don’t understand the basics of radiation
• 5/6 don’t understand basic concepts of genetic engineering
• 57% think electrons are bigger than atoms
• 63% think people lived at the same time as dinosaurs
Some guidelines for
environmental reporters:
• Best environmental reporting is usually in-depth
reporting that explains in detail
• Base reporting on sound science
• Follow the money. Who sponsored research?
• Translate technical information clearly
• Show impact on readers, viewers and listeners
• Present solutions
Some resources:
• Society of Environmental Journalists (Climate Change Guide)
www.sej.org/resource/index18.htm
• Investigative Reporters & Editors www.ire.org
• Knight Center for Environmental Journalism -- ej.msu.edu
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change www.ipcc.ch
• United Nations Environmental Program www.unep.org
• World Resources Institute www.wri.org
• Rough Guide to Climate Change
www.roughguides.com/climatechange
• Exploratorium www.exploratorium.edu
MISSION STATEMENT
The Knight Center for Environmental
Journalism seeks to improve public
understanding of environmental issues
through education, outreach and
research about environmental
journalism and the environment in the
United States and around the world.
Knight Center for Environmental Journalism
Background
• Knight Professor in Environmental Journalism was hired in 1994
and the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism was launched in
1999
• Expanded in 2003 with the hiring of Dave Poulson as assistant
director
• Further expanded in 2005 with additional grants of $4 million from
the Knight Foundation and Michigan State University
KNIGHT CENTER
Knight Center
Associate
Director
Director
Jim Detjen
Dave Poulson
Offers new master’s degree with an
option in environmental journalism
• Offers scholarships and graduate assistantships
• Offers more than a dozen courses in
environmental and science journalism
• Encourages international students
• Helps students obtain internships and jobs
Developing new forms of
environmental journalism
The Great
Lakes Wiki
Knight Center for Environmental Journalism website
offers news, resources and opportunities
http://ej.msu.edu
To find out more about the
Knight Center for Environmental Journalism:
Knight Center for Environmental Journalism
382 Communication Arts & Sciences
East Lansing, MI 48824-1212, USA
Phone: 517-349-7360 / 517-432-1415
FAX: 517-355-7710
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
Web: http://ej.msu.edu
ECHO News Service
ECHO –
A daily summary of
environmental news in
Michigan distributed via
the Internet.
http://ej.msu.edu/news.php
THE MEEMAN ARCHIVE
A searchable database
showcasing thousands of
award-winning
newspaper articles.
DOCUMERICA
A tool to help
journalists access
15,000
environmental
images.