It’s a fact: media shapes the public discourse about climate change and how to respond to it. Even the UN’s own Intergovernmental Panel of Experts on Climate Change (IPCC) warned clearly of this for the first time in the latest of its landmark series of reports.According to the IPCC, this “shaping” power can usefully build public support to accelerate climate mitigation – the efforts to reduce or prevent the emission of the greenhouse gases that are heating our planet – but it can also be used to do exactly the opposite. UN News spoke with Andrew Revkin, one of the most honored and experienced environmental journalists in the United States, and the founding director of the new Initiative on Communication and Sustainability at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Drawing on Mr. Revkin’s broad experience, and the expertise of UNESCO and the IPCC, here are five ways in which journalism can support climate action and fight misinformation.
1. Stop being so (overly) dramatic
2. A climate change story goes beyond (the) climate
3. ‘Get local’ and think more about climate justice
4. Build trust and engagement that can combat dis/misinformation
5. Be guided by science and embrace ’yes’
By UN News. October 3, 2022.
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