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November 10, 2013

We Need Good News on Climate Change

In a recent article in Yes! magazine, Sarah van Gelder makes the case for truly objective reporting in the media on the climate crisis. She makes the well-documented point that "false balance" in reporting gives too strong a voice to climate change deniers and is thus a distortion of the overwhelming scientific consensus on global warming: that it is real, and that humans are the cause.

But there is another way in which the media does not faithfully reproduce reality: the omission of stories about people working on solutions. While the stories about climate change must necessarily include grim reports on hurricanes, wildfires and ocean acidification, these very depressing and scary news items are not the whole story. Van Gelder writes:

"More truly objective reporting on the climate crisis and its systemic causes would be a huge improvement over what we find now. But still it would be just half the story. The other half is the solutions. We need much more reporting on solutions, and not just to keep despair from sending us screaming into those rising seas."


PV array atop the US Department of Energy

"... There is a climate justice movement happening that few know exists—a movement founded in the grassroots and especially in communities that are often ignored by the corporate media: Appalachia, indigenous communities, youth, farmers, fishermen, and small businesses. It's a movement that doesn’t separate environmental concerns from human concerns, but that recognizes that they are one and the same.

At the forefront of this movement are young people, ranchers, tribal leaders, people living near refineries, those resisting hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking), and others who are most affected by the fossil fuel industry. People are using their bodies to block the building of tar sands pipelines, to stop mountaintop removal, to prevent drilling in their communities—both to protect their land, water, and health, and to protect the climate."

This is really heartening stuff, and we all need to hear more of it. In particular, we need the inspiration, and the feeling that we are not alone in working to right the conditions on this planet. Van Gelder continues:

"The truth is that there is no shortage of solutions—whether it's Germany's turn to solar power or the carbon-storing power of restored soils. But given the shortage of stories about solutions, it's little wonder that so many people—once they understand the implications of the climate crisis—leap right from denial to despair. When stories of people taking action are censored, when the innovations that could help us tackle the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced go unreported, when the ordinary people and grassroots leaders working to build a sustainable future go unquoted, people are left isolated and feeling powerless.

That's what makes solutions journalism so important at this point in human history."

I'll do my bit: I've started a new Pinterest board called "Reasons for Hope". So yes, it's arranged right next to the "Alarm Bells are Ringing" board, but it's the juxtaposition that stirs us into action. If you find anything that belongs on that board, please let me know about it: no victory too small.

A larger collection of solutions that have been put into place can be found at the #itshappening page of 10:10, which reports the good news on all scales large and small, from Portugal achieving 70% renewable power generation, to the resurgence of bicycling in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to a homeowner proudly presenting the newly installed solar cells on his roof, to stories of urban gardening.

The 10:10 organisation proposes that we cut our carbon footprint, 10% at a time, and offers challenges, games and those inspiring stories from all around the world, to help us in our own efforts.

The Transition Network is another source of stories about how communities are re-thinking their energy generation and use. Communities can learn from each other through the Transition Town Network and the Sustainable Cities Collective.

It's a bandwagon. Jump on!

 

 

Shared at Small Footprint Fridays

 

You may also like:
1. Slash your carbon footprint
2. Energy Transition: Moving Into a Better Future


 

18 comments:

  1. Excellent point! We all know "good news" stories - tales of "win-win" situations - People who are HAPPY to install green technology. For one small example, when we install a cistern/rain garden system, two of our neighbors saw that it worked and looked great - and soon did the same.

    Fear sells news papers, but hope sells action. When people hear stories of success, they are more likely to feel in their hearts that success is possible, and then to want it, and then to act. We may have to push our media, sending stories and reports tireless to media outlets until the reporting changes.

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    1. You're so right: try writing letters to the editor of your favourite news publisher. When I wrote in how happy we were to get curb-side compost pickup, the town's coordinator told me she got a dozen new signups that week. Pass the good news!

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  2. I agree we focus too much on the negative, and let the good stories slip by us. Thanks for the reminder. I will be following your board!

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    1. Thanks! I hope to be posting regularly on that Hope board.

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  3. Love this post and your Pinterest board! We need the good news. And here's the thing ... negativity seems to stop any and all action. On the other hand, positivity seems to spark creative ideas and solutions. Thank you, CelloMom ... in fact, this sounds like a super CTWW idea. :-)

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    1. Thank you for running the ChangeTheWorldWednesday challenges: it's been so inspiring to share in the steady stream of good news.

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  4. My church just installed a 25 kW solar array. It took a lot of work to get here, but it is successes like this that make me hopeful of the future.

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    1. Congratulations! a great accomplishment. And I bet you became a stronger community in working together to tackle the various obstacles on the way.

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  5. Always nice to hear the good stuff that is happening.

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  6. Fabulous resources! This post really inspired me. I just followed the Pinterest Board. Thank you for being an optimist!

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  7. It is nice to see good news when normally, all you hear is the bad!

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  8. I'll be following your Pinterest board. I live near a Transition Town - Media, PA. I love seeing the new changes each time I visit.

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    1. I love Transition Towns! It's interesting how each one has developed the solutions that makes best sense for it.

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  9. Sadly solutions are not deemed to be news and don't sell papers, only the negative fear laden stories do or so we are told. Personally I would rather read about the successes and the solutions. Lovely post thank you for sharing.

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    1. Yes, we need to get away from the fear and turn to the solutions.

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