So yesterday (Thursday 27/01/12) saw the release of what was probably one of the largest and most important pieces of research carried out on the impacts of UK climate change. The UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2012 It was the first report of a scheduled five and took a deep look at the consequences the UK is likely to face as a result of a changing climate. Mainly focusing on areas such as agriculture/forestry, business, health/well-being, buildings/infrastructure and the natural environment whilst also providing an overview of the potential opportunities climate change could bring the UK over the next 80-100 years. So the findings of this very important 2000 page document produced by DEFRA created headlines around the country, prompted discussion from Canterbury to Arbroath to Aberwysth to Londonderry right….?
Yeah right.
I was suprised yesterday (Thursday 27/01/12) when I heard that this document had been released and the BBC news coverage briefly skimmed through some of the key points, I was even more suprised to log on to the BBC news website yesterday morning and find that the story had not even even made the headline news section found at the top of the page. Give the BBC some credit, they did at least have the story on their front page (all-be-it shoved right down at the bottom under the heading science/technology news – the bit that nobody reads unless they’re interested in that kind of thing). This evening (Friday 28/01/12) I looked through Sky news, the BBC news website, the Guardian website, the Independent website and the Telegraphs website and was extremely disatisfied and dismayed to find that only the BBC and the Independent still carry the story in prominent positions on their sites. When I say ‘prominent’ – I actually meany prominent if you know where to look, i.e. the environment section.
The BBC went for the dramatic ‘washed up fish’ look
Whilst the Independent newspaper took a more serious approach
This is the thing that frustrates me. We go to all this effort, spend all this money on having a really worthwhile document created which gives us a good impression of what the next 100 years is going to look like in our very own country (can’t get much closer to home than that) and yet the media find other stories such as ‘Toddler bites head off snake’ much more important and newsworthy. The worst thing about all of this is that those who are likely to be the most affected by the findings of this report, i.e. Joe Public, are reliant upon this kind of information being drip-fed to us, through the mass media. I don’t believe that many people will log onto the DEFRA site and download the 2000 page document or even take a look at the summary from DEFRA, why would they (engaged publics don’t count)?
Now for all I know, the government and various different agencies might take a few days, weeks, months… years to digest this report and all its information, and then maybe they’ll implement adaptation/mitigation strategies, and force this information upon people, but wouldn’t it be nice if there was some kind of agreement met with media – including the tabloids (the Sun, Express, Mirror, Mail etc..) that they had to keep this story in the news for a week? Maybe even just five days, covering the 5 different areas it tackles.
Perhaps its just me being ridicolously hopeful? Hmm… food for thought…
If you’re interested, I wrote my undergraduate dissertation on how the Norfolk/Suffollk tourism industry are adapting to climate change, it’s along a similar vein to this story. Get in touch if you’d be interested in reading a copy.
Jack.
I am a freelance environmental author with an MSc and BSc in Environmental Sciences from The University of East Anglia. Just trying to develop social media as an effective platform for communicating and engaging with people on all things green... Please get in touch with me if you are interested, I am willing to discuss any proposals.
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