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Climate change and the media

Demostrators holds a banner during a protest outside an EU Informal meeting of Ministers of Energy and Environment in Seville (Reuters) Demostrators holds a banner during a protest outside an EU Informal meeting of Ministers of Energy and Environment in Seville (Reuters)
Thu, 27 May 2010 2:01p.m.

By Travis Mills

We all make decisions in life. Sometimes these are good decisions, other times not so good. But what do we base our decisions on? Most people I have talked to say our emotions, past experiences and the cold hard facts that are placed in front of us. But what happens when these facts that we obtain aren’t correct? How do we decipher the fact from fiction? We often turn to the media as a trusted source of unbiased and factual information.

For decades the media has had the ability to influence millions of people as they go about their daily lives. But in recent years they have been faced with an issue that if they get wrong could destroy millions of our future generations’ lives - how to present climate change to the general public?

The newsroom cannot afford for incorrect statements about climate change to be made. It is the job of the media to inform us and educate us and to tell the truth.

I am in no way saying that human-made climate change vs. natural climate change should not be debated. I am simply asking that the media understand that if they don’t present the most widely accepted, realistic and reliable views - that unless something is done in the near future climate change will affect the next generation – they risk my generation not taking this situation seriously.

EPMU’s journalism code of ethics states:

(Journalists) shall report and interpret the news with scrupulous honesty by striving to disclose all essential facts and by not suppressing relevant, available facts or distorting by wrong or improper emphasis.

We must give credit where credit is due: to date the New Zealand media has been mostly very successful in abiding by this guideline.

Sadly some international media has not been so successful. I still remember tuning in to an American television news station to find a commentator going through piece-by-piece explaining why climate change is a fraud, without any attempt to provide balance.

With the Emissions Trading Scheme soon to hit the road in New Zealand it will be very interesting to see how the New Zealand media connects it back to climate change. Will it be expressed as another tax which will supposedly make the nation poorer or will it be shown to be a necessary speed bump on the way to creating a new sustainable lifestyle for our future generations to grow up in?

I leave on June 3 for Brazil to represent New Zealand youth at the Let’s Take Care of Our Planet conference, where we will debate what responsibilities the youth of the world have in combating climate change.

 

The UNICEF Climate Kiwis are five young New Zealanders committed to working on the issue of climate change.

 

Erana Walker, Rick Zwaan, Phoebe Hunt, Travis Mills and Abby Ward were selected by UNICEF in partnership with Enviro-challenge to represent New Zealand at the UNICEF Children’s Climate Forum in Copenhagen in 2009.

 

They returned determined to address the issue of climate change and prepare for the COP16 in Mexico this December.

 

Each week a different Climate Kiwi shares their thoughts and experiences here. 

 

Comments [5]

cyril
11 Jun 2010 08:17p.m.

Anyone who thinks that the media gives an unbiased and balanced view is living in LALA land. The focas of most if not all articles is based on the view of the Author and editor with few articles giving a balanced and unbiased view. Even if it is only by omission censorship is occuring all the time.

v
02 Jun 2010 09:46p.m.

This should get your brain working over time " NASA Covers Up Proof Global Warming is a Hoax for 40 Years! " Internally Nasa scientists are revolting at the political nature of un-scientific theory's OMG. they lied!.

V
30 May 2010 08:17p.m.

I would suggest the "Earths Dynamo", the iron molten core and our resulting Magnetosphere that protects our (and My belief that Climate Change is totally Dependant on the SUN) atmosphere are totally Dependant on whats happening in the SUN, So much so that NASA have the SUN under constant monitoring. And the NEWS is The SUN behaving oddly ...http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=solar-minimum-forecasting.

Duncan
29 May 2010 09:42a.m.

"..widely accepted, realistic and reliable views"???? Once upon a time the widely accepted realistic and reliable view was that the earth was flat, and you sir, are a flat earthist. You have fallen, like millions of sheep for the highly flawed popularist view of climate change.
Efforts should be going into how to survive during the changes that are coming and irrespective of the efforts to prevent this, read ETS, it will happen.
Our planet goes through this change every 20-50 thousand years (give or take) BUT this is the first instance man has been able to record it, (so much for man made) These changes have however been recorded in old lava flows and it tells us the earth's polarity switches regularly. As a result of this polarity change it is believed radical weather patterns, earthquakes and the loss of the ozone layer (ozone is directly linked to the production of magnetic energy which the earth naturaly produces due to the dynamo effect, of the earths spinning.) Simply put, the earth's dynamo slows until it stops (this is the crucial time as there will be only small domes of ozone protecting life within from solar radiation) however and its not known how but it will reactivate going back into full production of its magnetic energy and hence, the rebuilding of the ozone layer, (which will occur almost immediately) but the magnetic polarity will be reversed. It is uncertain how long it will take to complete the cycle, but we are talking decades, perhaps much longer.
Mars died as a planet simply because its dynamo did not restart.
The details expressed above is only an abridged view.
No, despite what you think I am not a nutter but I am not a flat earthist neither.
Expend your energies not on tax's people cannot afford, they will only fill the pockets of the wealthy.
As you abide by the code, from now on ensure that you do otherwise you are only part of the problem.

David
28 May 2010 07:08p.m.

Interesting that 43 members of the Royal Society have forced a rethink about how climate change is being sold to the media. There are some facts - the climate has always changed. But there are a lot of guesses and very iffy computer modelling (impact of man, role of carbon etc)NZ reporting has been woefully imbalanced. The best way to save the planet is dump the ETS and concentrate on being more sensible and scientific in exploring the natural changes that occur.

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