Making Sense of Climate Change

Media reports about climate change can be conflicting and confusing. Many stories follow the formula of providing claims of evidence for and against climate change, giving media consumers the impression that the issue is not yet settled.

Robson Fletcher, a student in UBC's School of Journalism, reviews why a majority consensus regarding the reality of climate change is underreported in The UBC Thunderbird.

The vast majority of climate scientists are in agreement about anthropogenic climate change. However, a few climate scientists and many non-climate scientists dispute the evidence. Is the public served best when balanced reporting does not reflect the balance of evidence?

Fletcher suggests:

“In the quest for journalistic balance, editors provide a small group of climate change sceptics with disproportionate space to express their views.”

Fletcher then elaborates on the differences between the approaches of the climate scientists and climate change skeptics regarding how each group's findings are published and disseminated in the media.

Links:

• Unbalanced Opinions by Robson Fletcher


• Beware the Fossil Fools - an opinion piece by George Monbiot in The Guardian on the issue of climate change reporting

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 1:41 PM on April 27, 2004

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