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Can we change this? Is it possible to talk about climate change in such a way that people
do not become depressed, but rather join in or lead the necessary changes? Have journalists
considered that these questions can convey climate change? What about the organisations
trying to raise awareness?
In this brief appendix we propose a practical approach to the topic, borrowing the lessons
gleaned from a workshop held in Madrid in December 2014. In attendance were various
environmental organisations, journalists, politicians and experts in communication and climate
change (Platform for a New Energy Model, Ecologists in Action, Ecooo, Biodiversity Foundation
and ElDiario.es). PHOTO
Before coming to the emotional barriers of the public, it would be appropriate to place ourselves
next to the general media because this is the first great battlefield. Information on climate
change has to negotiate its first obstacle, which is getting onto the news agenda, where it
competes with hundreds of more striking and/or urgent subjects for a finite amount of space.
Leaving aside the different editorial perspectives and the dependence of many media outlets
on advertisements from fossil fuel energy companies, banks or construction companies, as is
the case for Spain, let us focus on the section chief because very often it is up to that person to
decide on what is worth divulging.
News on climate change or the eviction of an 87-year-old woman? Climate change or the
banking executives’ credit card scandal? Or healthcare apartheid? Or the latest political
corruption case?
Day after day, the space left for climate change is derisory.
However, some information does manage to fit into the tight squeeze. The journalist is then
faced with the following problem: the international scientific community spent years debating
climate change and has, today, reached a united stance thanks to the UN Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change; nevertheless, the intense denial echoed in so-called scientific studies
funded by oil companies has left an imprint on public opinion. Many journalists, holding
information clearly linking an event with climate change, are reluctant to state that it has been
caused by such a source.And facing this doubt, they do not connect the cause with the effect but
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