Covering climate change: Missing the forest for the trees
Food security
Another important issue the media raised but failed to provide extensive coverage on was the government’s response to food security threats. They did provide such details as that Benguet and Dagupan supply about 50 percent of the vegetables and fish in the Luzon market. The unusual drop in temperatures in Benguet damaged vegetable crops there, even as it led to low fish harvests in Dagupan. The media reports did provide the information that the damage to the vegetable crop in Benguet was due to frost, while the low fish yields in Dagupan was due to the cold weather’s forcing fish to seek deeper water.
Whether the government was doing something about it was of course a fair question. But save for a Jan. 5 Inquirer report that said the Department of Agriculture would give farmers in Benguet three power sprayers  they could use in the morning to water their plants and prevent frost damage,  the media did not report other government initiatives, if any.
Wasting time and space
While the media tend to react to criticism of their shortcomings by claiming that they don’t have the time or space to do better, apparently they do have enough time and space to waste on trivia. TV Patrol’s Noli de Castro, for example, could afford to expend precious airtime last Jan. 5 to ask ABS-CBN weatherman Kim Atienza if the winds from China could bring snow to the Philippines. A Jan. 2 Inquirer report segued from reporting  the drop in Baguio City temperatures to making the stupid observation that “the city’s most prominent tourist, President Benigno Aquino III, a bachelor, only has (sic) the warmth of thick blankets to ward off the cold.”
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