House on fire: Sounding the alarm on climate change

THE HOUSE is on fire but no one seems to be hearing the alarm bells.

As world leaders convened for the United Nations (UN) Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23, millions of young people all over the world organized a global week of action, putting the climate crisis on center stage. Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swede who started the global “Climate Strike” addressed world leaders, calling them out for their indifference and negligence. Youth organizations in the Philippines were among the groups that swelled the wave of strikes around the world, demanding immediate and urgent transformative action.  

The Philippines is the third most at risk country in the world, according to the 2018 study of the financial firm HSBC on climate change vulnerability. It is also among those which would suffer the most from rising sea levels according to a recently released UN report. Scientists have warned that the human race can survive only if governments effectively addressed global warming.

The local climate strikes received scant attention from the media, with a few scoring the Philippine government for its lack of concern and featuring youth strikers.

CMFR monitored the leading Manila broadsheets (Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Philippine Star); the primetime newscasts (ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrol, CNN Philippines’ News Night, GMA-7’s 24 Oras and TV5’s Aksyon) and some online news sites from September 16 to 30.

Perfunctory

Aksyon and News Night ran brief stories on the UN Climate Summit, but the local climate strikes did not gain any time in primetime newscasts. 

Among newspapers, the Inquirer and the Star ran stories on the local strikes. Reports could do more to point out the Philippine government’s virtual indifference to environmental issues. Stories on Thunberg’s moving speech were usually found in the World News section.

Jefferson Estella, one of the founders of Youth Strike 4 Climate Philippines, told CMFR that media could have highlighted the regional strikes. He added that the government should be proactive in addressing climate change and that media should give emphasis on its effects like rising sea level and unusual weather patterns which affect fishermen and farmers.

With or without media attention, the effects of climate change will be felt worldwide and the people will suffer most in the least prepared countries like the Philippines. The September climate strikes were momentous events, but media could do more to ring those alarm bells.

Some exceptions:

Aside from reporting the activities of the Youth Strike 4 Climate Philippines and the Youth Advocates for Climate Action in the Philippines (Yacap), Rappler also featured five local youth environmental activists; some of them survived Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) in 2009 and Super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in 2013. The piece highlighted their continuing efforts in organizing communities and lobbying for much needed climate change laws.

The public affairs talk show Agenda on One News provided a platform for youth organizers from Yacap, Health Care without Harm and Saribuhay UP Diliman to talk about the engagement of Filipino youth in the climate crisis and the Filipino youth movement. One News is an all-news channel of Cignal TV, a direct-to-home satellite provider.

A report on news.ABS-CBN.com quoted Yeb Saño, a former climate envoy, who recalled how the administration has relegated the climate crisis to the back burner. President Rodrigo Duterte said last May that these conferences are a waste of time and money. Saño said Filipinos have yet to appreciate the urgency of the problem “despite experiencing all of the worst impacts of climate change.”