Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
has been pumped in by these anti-climate change lobby groups and for them any hesita-
tion or delay in action is a victory for these groups. Second, the media's ethical commit-
ment to balanced reporting may unwittingly provide unwarranted attention to critical
views, even if they are marginal and outside the realm of what is normally considered
'good' science. In the UK, the BBC has come under increasing criticism for trying to
provide this balance. An excellent report by Professor Steve Jones (University College
London) in 2011, commissioned by the BBC, pointed out that they were skewing whole
scientific debates by setting up one-to-one discussions on radio and TV. In many areas of
science, thousands of scientists may agree on a particular point of view or principle yet
they will be given only the same amount of time as a few mavericks. It has got even worse
recently at the BBC as they are now pitting scientists against political commentators such
as Lord Lawson who feels qualified to debunk any scientific evidence he does not agree
with. Add to this the greater ease of communication, from conventional media, such as
newspapers, radio, and television, to more informal blogs, tweets, etc. Normal private de-
bate among scientists and experts can easily be shifted into the public arena and anyone,
what ever their level of expertise, can voice an opinion and feel it is as valid as that of ex-
perts who have dedicated their whole lives to studying areas of science. Overall, this con-
tributes to a public impression that the science of climate change is 'contested', despite
what many would argue is an overwhelmingly scientific case that climate change is occur-
ring and human activity is a main driver of this change.
In the USA, other forms of media that rely on visual information such as film, television,
and the internet have perhaps been more powerful than newspaper coverage. Researchers
have studied the effects of the 2004 Hollywood blockbuster film The Day After Tomor-
row . With a huge viewing public (estimated at 21 million people in the USA alone), The
Day After Tomorrow was a commercial success and also appears to have helped to pro-
mote climate change from an obscure scientific issue to one of popular public concern. In
addition, the media coverage in glossy magazines, which started initially in Time
Magazine in April 2006, and Vanity Fair in May 2006, has begun to convey a greater
sense of urgency about climate change. Finally, widespread media coverage of emblemat-
ic impacts of climate change has also been stimulated by the international release of the
documentary film An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore; the environmental message of
James Cameron's film Avatar in 2009; and by a growing number of television document-
aries on climate change, such as 60 Minutes , ABC News, and HBO documentaries. This
visual approach in the USA has recently culminated in Showtime's nine-part documentary
television series Years of Living Dangerously , focusing on the human stories of climate
change that premiered on 13 April 2014. It has James Cameron, Jerry Weintraub, and
Arnold Schwarzenegger as executive producers, and celebrity presenters include Harrison
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