Climate Change and the Media

This blog entry is slightly different from others in that it’s about the subject of a documentary I’ve been directing, rather than my industry itself. I’ve just returned from two weeks filming across America with four of the world’s top climate scientists, who have convinced me that the climate crisis is a clear and present danger. In the 12 years since Kyoto, scientific evidence for man-made global warming has become incontrovertible while its effects have become evident world-wide. This December, representatives from 170 countries will attend the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen to try and negotiate a new climate agreement. Success or failure will depend partly on how accurately the Media (print & television) looks at the truth and ignores all the noise and disinformation thrown up by those who oppose any action on climate change, often for short-term political or economic motives.

As a filmmaker, I’ve worked with leading scientists and activists on both sides of the climate debate several times over the years. 20 years ago I made a PBS series titled “After the Warming”; now I’m helping an Australian team make a documentary titled “The Tipping Point”. After listening to all the arguments and researching the science, I’m amazed at how many Americans still refuse to accept evidence that’s staring us all in the face. The science was clear 20 years ago (just not so conclusive) and projections made in “After the Warming” now seem prescient. We predicted increases in global temperatures, melting of permafrost and Arctic sea ice, global sea rise, earlier mountain snow melt, glacial retreat, increased drought and desertification, longer fire seasons, more powerful storms and much more.

Most scientists are conservative by nature, unwilling to support conclusions until fully proven, yet the overwhelming majority studying the climate are now sounding the alarm. The few legitimate scientists who refute global warming often argue from outside their areas of expertise with data that is incomplete, erroneous or out of context. A small 2009 increase in Arctic winter sea ice is used to debunk global warming, no matter that trends over decades prove the opposite, as does every other scientific indicator and climate model. The earth’s atmosphere is a complex system that doesn’t always behave as expected. But any deviation from predicted climate models is hailed by skeptics as evidence that global warming is a dangerous myth.

Limiting climate change means making hard and scary choices. It’s easier to hide our heads in the sand and blame others for a reality that seems beyond our control. For liberals, it’s easy to blame energy companies (especially the coal industry) for obfuscating global warming science since their financial interests are best served by maintaining the status-quo. Conservatives are encouraged to blame the “bi-coastal liberal elites” (as one climate skeptic told me) who use an “artificial climate crisis to impose socialist policies on America.”

The truth is we’re all to blame. America, with 5% of world population, produces almost 25% of world greenhouse emissions. Our comfortable life style came into existence only because of unlimited supplies of coal and oil. It’s not sustainable. But ideological battles over climate change are exacerbated when we (the Media) portray them as ‘Crossfire’ debates between pros and cons, equating the flawed science of a minority of skeptics with the overwhelming evidence gathered by climate scientists around the world. We seize on the controversy because it’s good television and we like to be even handed. But the science isn’t even handed and when we don’t do due diligence in respect to research data, we’re confusing the issue and causing additional harm. No wonder Americans don’t know what to believe, especially when interest groups fighting to prevent emission controls use ‘swift boat’ tactics to discredit the science by personally attacking the scientists.

Vice President Gore calls global warming “a moral rather than a political issue”. While wealthy nations can mitigate its effects, poorer nations can’t. Glacier retreat and changes in mountain snow melt threaten water supplies and put additional stress on food production and populations, especially in third world countries. Global warming is already causing sea rise, drought, crop failures, harsher storms, more refugees and growing political instability. This is only going to get worse over the coming decades. We can’t stop it but perhaps we can limit its effects if we take action now.

Winston Churchill once said “America can be counted on to do the right thing after she has exhausted all other options.” The Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen will show whether America and the world has the courage to think beyond short-term politics and do the right thing. I’m not hopeful; vested interests arrayed against action are still too powerful and global warming doesn't have the immediate repercussions of recession, home foreclosures or job losses. America seems incapable of worrying about problems that aren't right under its nose. I fear it will take a catastrophic climate event (Katrina writ large) before there’s a tipping point in public opinion sufficient to shame politicians into acting. The Media can either help or hurt this process of public information and awareness. We must report the real facts and the real research and not fall into the trap of listening to those who shout the loudest or reflect our own ideological bent. We’ve lost credibility with the public because we’ve forgotten our role is to ferret out 'the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth'.

History will judge our behavior as harshly as it will judge the behavior of politicians and corporations who oppose actions necessary to safeguard the future of a planet we all share. Humanity will eventually solve the climate crisis but the longer we wait, the more people will suffer and die, and the more painful will be the societal changes needed to solve it. Of course these troubles will provide opportunities for great journalism and documentaries but, as we observe the suffering, we need to remember we share some of the blame. America is not an island and we're all in this together. The facts are clear, the science is undisputable; our job is simply to discover the truth and then shout it from the rooftops until people listen. To quote the inestimable Bill Cosby. "Noah?" "Yes, God." "How long can you tread water?"