Student: Katie Kelly
Graduation date: May 2018
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2015
Go to concentration landing page
Summary
Scientists have acknowledged the existence of climate change since the 1850s when John Tyndall offered “the first public, experimentally based account of what has become known as the greenhouse effect,” (Hulme 2009, 121). Already, the evidence of climate change (which includes rising sea levels, increasing global temperatures, and increased risk of natural disasters) has forced politicians, climate scientists, and economists to accept that these changes are inevitable. The only way to survive is to adapt.
International policy on climate change, like Article 3 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Delhi Ministerial Declaration on Climate Change and Sustainable Development, places the responsibility of adapting on governments and organizations. Climate change adaptation decisions are not isolated and therefore it can be “difficult to separate [them] from actions triggered by other social or economic events,” (Adger, Nigel, and Tompkins 2005, 80). Because of this, climate change is a rights issue. The term climate justice (and the movement that came from it) sought to “bring together environmental activists with those most likely to suffer first and worst from climate change,” (Roberts and Parks 2009, 385). Climate justice focuses on mobilizing people and communities to take a stronger stand against the life-threatening effects of climate change (Pettit 2014, 122).
My concentration will focus on two key actors in climate justice visibility: climate justice organizations and news media. Organizations work with existing structures of government to create change, but in addition “their repertoires for action revolve around petitions, research, and aid,” (Uldam and Vestergaard2015, 45). Online media platforms allow these mediators to expand the scope and visibility of climate justice issues. News media on the other hand, does not have an underlying agenda in climate justice. The rhetoric used to cover climate justice and change plays a huge role in the perception of the social, environmental, and political condition of world (Dispensa and Brulle 2003, 74).
My concentration will be looking at the content and rhetoric published by climate justice organizations and news media, and the medium in which they are published. My concentration will focus on the use of buzzwords in highly covered threats of climate justice that include drought and agricultural decline in sub-Saharan Africa, sea-level rise in low-lying island nations, the increasing risk of hurricanes in Central America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa, and the inequality in responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions (Roberts and Parks 2009, 386). Not only that, it will focus on the effectiveness of different media platforms, including their intended audience, spread, traction, and influence of content.
In the countries with the highest total carbon dioxide emissions from consumption (China, United States, India), climate change is covered very differently by their medias. The United States and India are an interesting comparison because both of their media claim to be independent and free. In a Oxford Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism report on climate change scepticism, 80% of the sceptical voices were found in United Kingdom and the United States. On top of that, studies done about climate change in United States media is primarily concerned with whether climate change media is biased or with claims of alarmism in media. In India, however, 98% of its coverage is attributes climate change to human activity (Boykoff 2010, 21). Rather than focus on whether climate change is human-induced or not, Indian media focuses on the more pressing normative and political frame around risk and responsibility (Boykoff 2010, 21). Finally, Chinese news media were only state run from around the 1950s-80s. Since Deng Xiaoping got into power, not only has China become one of the globe’s fastest-growing post-industrial economies, but media censorship has also relaxed, allowing a couple independent media groups to pop up. Because of the growing influence of the internet, however, Hu Jintao has tightened up media censorship. In the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, both negotiators from India and China made a stance that in order to implement strong emissions reduction agreement, developed economies need to fully recognize their historical responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions.
Besides their politics, different parts of society also affect citizens’ perceptions of the world. For instance, three-quarters of America’s population is Christian. It is also a constitution-based federal republic with a strong democratic tradition. China, on the other hand, has never had a religion that it’s population identifies with, and it is a communist state. India, with 80% of its population identifying with Hinduism, is a socialist, secular, and democratic republic with a parliamentary system of government. India has a history of colonization with Britain, while China was semi colonized by Britain, France, Russia and others and forced into trading with them.
An example of how influential rhetoric can be is the success of the term global warming versus global change. Global warming was introduced in 1975 in Wallace Broecker’s article “Climate Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?” At this point there was still no evidence for human-induced climate change, but this term held human activity accountable for climate change. Introduced maybe a decade later, the term global change (that referred to planetary-scale cycles) never caught the same traction in scientific or popular discourse. By contrast, global warming became a buzzword when James E. Hansen testified to Congress about climate. Its popularity can be accredited to climate change advocates
Another aspect of publishing climate justice media is the spread of the content. The most re-tweeted leader in the world, Pope Francis’s catapult into social media stardom hit the Vatican’s communications network hard, and now the Pontifical Council for Social Communications exists. The Pope uses this platform in order to broaden his influence even further than it would have before When the Pope talks about climate change in respect to religion, it will reach millions.
Intended audience plays a role in climate justice visibility as well. The Valero refinery adjacent to the Manchester neighborhood in Houston, Texas, a mostly Latino and overwhelmingly poor community, would have refined the tar sands transported to Texas from Canada through the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Tar Sands Blockade (TSB) created a documentary Blockadia Rising: Voice of the Tar Sands Blockade that interviewed community members like farmers, land-owners, and mothers in order to humanize the issue. Their Facebook page has 65,119 likes and their most viewed video on YouTube has 43,822 views. Although the community is mostly Spanish-speaking, all of their media — even their website — is in English. This outreach was specifically catered to the English-speaking population outside of Manchester to bring attention to the issue, not to organize resistance. On November 6, 2015 President Obama rejected legislation to build the Keystone XL Pipeline Project.
Adger, W. Neil, Nigel W. Arnell, and Emma L. Tompkins. 2005. “Successful adaptation to climate change across scales.” Global environmental change 15: 77-86.
Boykoff, Max. 2010. “Indian media representations of climate change in a threatened journalistic ecosystem.” Climatic Change 99: 17-25.
Dispensa, Jaclyn Marisa, and Robert J. Brulle. 2003. “Media’s social construction of environmental issues: focus on global warming-a comparative study.” International Journal of sociology and social policy 23: 74-105.
Hulme, Mike. 2009. “On the origin of ‘the greenhouse effect’: John Tyndall’s 1859 interrogation of nature.” Weather 64: 121-123.
Mann, Michael E., Raymond S. Bradley, and Malcolm K. Hughes. 1998. “Global-scale temperature patterns and climate forcing over the past six centuries.” Nature 392: 779-787.
Pettit, Jethro. 2014. “CLIMATE JUSTICE: A NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR ATMOSPHERIC RIGHTS1.” Green Planet Blues: Critical Perspectives on Global Environmental Politics 1: 122.
Roberts, J. Timmons, and Bradley C. Parks. 2009. “Ecologically unequal exchange, ecological debt, and climate justice the history and implications of three related ideas for a new social movement.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 50: 385-409.
Uldam, Julie, and Anne Vestergaard, eds. 2015. Civic Engagement and Social Media: Political Participation Beyond Protest. Palgrave Macmillan.
Questions
Descriptive: Who covers climate climate/justice in the news, what do they cover, and when do they cover it? Who is the intended audience for online news outlets, and who is the actual audience for it? What are the buzz words used in current climatic justice media?
Explanatory: Why is it problematic to that some people don’t believe in climate change? Why is media an important form of communication in social change? What obstacles are in the way of the public participating in climate justice, news media, or climate justice organizations? Why is there controversy in the popular community and not in the scientific community?
Evaluative: Are news media and climate justice organization outlets an effective way of facilitating and mobilizing disadvantaged people and communities in the climate justice process? Is there another underrepresented aspect of climate change news coverage, like scientific-political discourse, that is a more productive means of complicating news coverage? Are the hot-topic issues stated in my concentration the most pertinent issues of climate justice?
Instrumental: How do we create a tool of news media that the public can utilize as a means of mobilizing disadvantaged communities to demand reform? How can we eliminate bias of perspective in new outlets? How can we make climate justice and other underrepresented aspects of climate change more marketable and appealing for news outlets to cover?
Concentration courses
- ENVS 460 (Topics in Environmental Law and Policy, 4 credits), Fall 2015. In this class, I will learn how agencies create law, regulations, and policies pertaining to climate justice. I will also study avenues for climate justice organizations to influence policy and legislation through a legal agenda.
- RHMS 321 (Argumentation and Social Justice, 4 credits), Fall 2016. In this class I will learn the role and importance of rhetoric concerning social justice and social change.
- RHMS 408 (Argumentation and Persuasion in Science, 4 credits), Spring 2016. In this course I will study the disconnect between scientific advances and discourse in climate change and how this is interpreted for politicians, economics, and popular media.
- IA 296 (Human Rights in International Politics, 4 credits) Fall 2016 or 2017. This course will address how climate justice fits into human rights. I will also learn how to prevent human rights violations.
- ENVS 499 (Independent Study, 4 credits), Fall 2016-2017. Concentration-related research connected to anticipated Senegal overseas program Spring 2017. This research will probably be focused on news media in Dakar Senegal.
- GEOL 170 (Climate Science, 5 credits), Fall 2017. This course will give me in-depth knowledge of the concept that started this entire concentration, climate change. I will experience the rhetoric and discourse being had in the scientific community.
Arts and humanities courses
- HIST 261 (Global Environmental History, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- HIST 241 (Researching and Writing Public History, 4 credits). My outlet for this course will be climate justice. I will learn how to research and write down history, and also understand how the words I use and the perspective I have skews this history.