Most of us understand the existential threat climate change is to our world. From the blazing wildfires in California to the rising sea levels near Florida, "there's no doubt: The climate crisis is here." As the leadoff for NiemanLab's Predictions of 2022, journalist Natalia Viana paints a stark image of what could become of environmental journalism in our world under the current climate crisis.
To better illustrate, Viana is "a journalist from Brazil" who has felt the shifting of climate change disrupt her people and her country for years. Additionally, as a woman from Brazil, Viana knows all too well the crucial part that the South plays in our global ecosystem. She writes that "60 percent of global terrestrial life" is housed in Latin America, not to mention that while deforestation begins to consume the Amazon, we could potentially be losing "10 percent of the world's biodiversity." Naturally, these are statistics that each person should be privy to no matter the country. However, in a world where an uprising of campaigns against journalism is rising, environmental journalists' voices continue being silenced.
“In the face of climate collapse, it’s time for the North to start looking South — and learn from its people and journalists.”
Natalia Viana details that many vital stories regarding the climate crisis come from "community leaders" in South America, and are overlooked because of "how they talk, the color of their skin, [and] their culture." Due to this, many of the important stories that we need to fight climate change are unpublished. This behavior from the South has seemed to flow here in the U.S. and Europe. Although many of the anecdotes aren't coming from Indigenous peoples, journalists are still "being labeled "too engaged" and "biased." As a result, Viana has called for the North to look to the South.
With much of the discussion on climate change already occurring in the South, Viana states the U.S. and Europe can "learn from its [the South's] people and journalists." Likewise, our partners in Latin America have a lot of details involving the climate crisis. If we followed in their footsteps here in the U.S., then who knows where journalists would be in the contest against climate change. I think the opportunity for the Western world to follow instead of leading could potentially benefit us in ways that we can't imagine.
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