Media Spotlight: Climate Change

Ironically, given that it affects everyone, climate change has become one of the most polarizing issues of our time. The conflicts range from what it is, what to call it, who’s fault it is and how to fix it.

In this article, originally published in the Washington Post, Maxwell Boykoff talks about how politicians have begun changing the language that deals with this issue to suit their own purposes. He notably questions the Obama administration for moving away from the terms “global warming” and “climate change” in favor of “clean energy” and “energy independence”.

But it’s not only politicians who are responsible for misleading or misinforming the public. As Lynn Peeples explains in this Huffington Post blog post, your local meteorologist might be going out of his way to downplay the effects of climate change on your every day life.

Someone not shying away from linking global warming to extreme weather events is James Hansen. He and two of his colleagues at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies have released a report that links global warming directly to Texas’ current drought. This Inside Climate News article has all the details.

Outside the U.S. efforts are continuing to raise awareness of climate change and it’s effect. The Gambia recently held a media training seminar to educate journalists on their role in helping to communicate the facts and implications of climate change to the general public. Read more about it here.
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In the video below, Jamal Saghir, Director of the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Department, Africa Region, talks about the importance of developing infrastructure on the continent within the context of climate change and its impacts.