It is almost impossible to talk about information related to climate change, or about anything, without being clear about the context and why this global problem is generated, a problem related to development and abuse against the environment in general.
Many times I read news (I also hear it and watch it) that surprises me especially because of several conditions: the number of contradictions within the same story; fanaticism, the lack of objectivity in how the information is handled; the lack of knowledge about the topic (they should have read Reader Digest at least), and in other cases I find pieces written with true mastery (like experts). And then I ask myself why there is so much difference.
Some years ago I saw on one of the TV news programs a very harsh critique by a "journalist-complainer" about the way Paseo Colon was being paved. The next day, without more, I asked my first-year engineering students to watch the story and tell me what they thought. The general conclusion reflected the nonsense, because the correct paving method was being used, and they added that the journalist reported things "without meaning, far from reality and full of subjectivity".
I recognize that it is not possible to find total objectivity (100%), and I cite a recent research study that concluded: "... biases carry more weight than was imagined and are capable of clouding reasoning and not taking real and concrete facts into account" (PloS Computational Biology 2017).
It is clear that journalism has been losing credibility. An article I read recently confirms it: "... in the nineties, Pew Center surveys pointed to a growing loss of credibility. Journalism was perceived as closer to power than to the reader. In fact it was a power (even the 3rd more than the 4th, many judges protested) more than a counter-power. That media power produced great things, but also perversions..." (El Pais 01/30/2018).
But beyond the loss of credibility, some news or reports have become boring; they lack the ability to spark interest, they lack craft.
The first thing that comes to mind when we talk about climate change is what the press has shown us: smokestacks releasing smoke, forests cut down, and eroded land. Others think about droughts and floods. Very few refer to how we use our car and our consumption habits, and how those impact climate change.
Our planet, "our home", lives in a dynamic balance, an atmosphere composed of gases that produces a greenhouse effect. Think about what happens when you are inside a car and it is very cold outside, but there is sun and you feel warm inside the car. Unlike the roof of our car, the atmosphere lets some solar radiation pass through and also lets some out. That is what allows us to live and, without that greenhouse effect, "our home" would be so cold that it would be impossible to live in it.
Our consumption habits have caused more gases than needed to be produced, more than what the atmosphere needs and can handle. Because of this, the sun rays do not escape in the expected amount and get trapped, producing a temperature increase, an increase in the greenhouse effect, which causes impacts on the climate of our planet and is what we know as climate change.
What produces the increase in gases? Many things, but in particular two processes: the burning of hydrocarbons and a decrease in natural sources that used to capture them.
There are more and more people on the planet, more food consumption (more farms producing food and, to have more cultivation area, trees are cut down), more cars and buses, motorcycles, factories, energy generators to produce in "our home" and, because of how life works, which we will not touch here due to space, most energy comes from oil (which is essentially carbon and, when burned, produces CO2 and other gases and particles).
Every moment there is more CO2 in the air (and also methane and other gases that come from agriculture and livestock, mining, and other sources). What did nature design to capture a large part of those gases? Forests!
In primary school we learned that trees absorb CO2 and release oxygen, and that carbon is stored in the tree; yes, that is what nature arranged to capture certain gases: photosynthesis.
Humans, due to the way we live, produce more gases than nature can capture, and these, instead of being absorbed, go to the atmosphere and prevent sun rays from escaping.
With that in mind: what should be reported?
That there is a change in the natural balance produced by human consumption habits, that each day there are more of us and, therefore, we require more food and more areas to cultivate it, and to do that, forests are cut down.
That the more goods we consume that are not produced with clean energy, the more gases there will be in the atmosphere and, therefore, the imbalance becomes greater every day.
That we contribute to producing more gases: the more we consume and waste energy, the more gases we generate (for example, using our car just for ourselves).
That to restore balance, we have to reduce our gas emissions and increase our absorption sources; in other words, more forests.
That all of us have responsibilities as inhabitants of the planet, common but differentiated, because it is not the same to ask a citizen in a developed country to reduce the use of the stove or refrigerator, as it is to forbid a citizen in the developing world from acquiring a refrigerator to keep food fresh.
Communicating with knowledge, and doing it in an entertaining and attractive way for the audience, is a hard task, but it can be done!
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