The Media’s Role in the Debate: Hot Topic or Hot Air?

Yesterday the Inter Press Service featured a question and answer session with Maurizio Gubbiotti of Legambiente, an Italian NGO which recently released a study claiming that environmental refugees exceed the number of war refugees. Gubbiotti believes that the greatest impact will be within already fragile states, like Africa, and coastal areas in Asia, especially Bangladesh and the Pacific islands. In particular, “Maldives islands, where 85 percent…is threatened by rising seas, and about 300,000 people will have to move soon.” The president of the Maldives is, incidentally, already in negotiations with other countries to relocate the island's entire population before it is too late.

A few days ago the New York Times offered a more nuanced piece (“Refugees Join List of Climate-Change Issues”) that looked at climate change induced migration pressures on small islands and land-locked countries already in the throes of conflict. This post was particularly encouraging for two reasons: 1) the link between climate change, migration and conflict was discussed as legitimate and recognized by the UN as a security threat -- “For the first time in history, you could actually lose countries off the face of the globe,” said Stuart Beck, the permanent representative for Palau at the United Nations. “It is a security threat to them and their populations, which will have to be relocated, which is the security threat to the places where they go, among other consequences.”

And more importantly: 2) a reputable and popular news source brought the issue to the forefront.

Although enjoying resurgent popularity, climate refugees have been the media’s darling for some time. From Salon.com’s article on Tuvalu’s search for higher ground before its population is inundated by rising seas; to assertions that high tides have already claimed the first “climate refugees” in multiple small island states like Kiribati and the Carteret Islands (which seems the most accepted example; see here as well). Add to that a running series called “Bangladesh: Where the Climate Exodus Begins” on GreenWire, and it seems the news is brimming with doom-and-gloom scenarios of climate-induced migration. Most of these stories revolve around anecdotal evidence, which often illegitimizes the very real future problem of climate refugees. And, while increasing coverage is heartening, and is a means to catalyzing international and legal recognition; we must wait for more than just anecdotes in order to create sustainable solutions. I think Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, former head migration researcher at the Institute for Public Policy Research, hits the quick of the matter with the thought that "there is...no shortage of political or media interest in the nexus between climate change and migration. Yet there seems to be a dearth of analysis on how exactly climate change will lead to displacement and on what should be done to minimise adverse impacts. This has resulted in limited commitment to no action." We must, therefore, wait and hope for the discussion to move out of the annals of the media and into larger, more influential halls like those of the UN.

Shout Out: Dennis Dimick, executive director at National Geographic, has been particularly in the fold, with his blog Signs From Earth regularly covering climate refugee issues and linking to other newsworthy sources.

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