Getting the Word Out on Climate Change
The UNFCC is currently meeting in South Africa to try to formulate a coherent global response to climate change and the challenges it presents. If you have not heard about it or are not very familiar with factual climate change information, you're not alone.
In Durban, as climate policy is being written, another question has yet to be answered: With all the information and misinformation about climate change, what are the best ways to communicate information about it?
First, the UNFCC is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. After its last meeting in Copenhagen ended in a lack of compromise, UNFCC is currently hosting a Climate Change Conference in Durban, hoping for better results. It must work to stall and offset the effects of climate change and educate countries and people about the dangers of unchecked climate change. Those covering it's meetings know that there has been a failure to communicate what’s at stake.
In an effort to remedy that failure, Internews Earth Journalism Network (EJN) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), in collaboration with HP, the World Bank, Connect for Climate and other organizations, will host the 1st annual Climate Communications Day, a parallel event in Durban.
Climate Communications Day aims to gather journalists, bloggers, scientists and others to “exchange insights” on how news and information on climate change can be shared effectively. It is a challenge that requires more than just sharing the facts.
Global climate change is a difficult subject to explain. The science behind climate change is fairly complex. Its effects are felt differently not just across the world but also from one city to the next in the same region. Scientists, followers of facts and evidence, are unwilling to play up the drama of singular weather events for climate change points.
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