By
Eunice Hilda Ampomah, GNA
Accra, Sept. 11, GNA – The Ghana Journalists
Association (GJA) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have
organised a workshop to build the capacity of journalists in reporting on
climate change issues, its effects and ways to control it.
The workshop provided a platform to discuss
topics such as climate change, direct and indirect impacts of climate change,
causes of climate change, and how to control climate change and its effects.
Mr Roland Affail Monney, the President of
the Ghana Journalists Association, said the world was in danger with regard to
climate change if an action was not taken with urgency to control the
situation.
The media space was too enthused with
politics, he said, and urged media institutions to allocate more time to
discuss issues that pose a serious threat to the nation like sanitation,
climate change, good roads, schools, and fishing.
He also urged journalists to do more of
solution-based reportage and influence policy makers to implement policies and
take steps that would cause a positive change.
Mr Bright Blewu, a member of the National
Media Commission, who chaired the workshop, said journalists have a crucial
role to play in reducing the causes and effects of climate change.
However, he said, their work could achieve
the maximum effect if they helped national leaders to recognize climate change
as a problem.
He said journalists needed to bring issues
of climate change and the environment at large at the forefront of their
reportage.
“Climate change knows nobody and if
something bad is done here, it affects other countries. We need to protect our
environment and ensure that things that destroy our environment are curtailed,”
he said.
Mr Pa Louis Thomasi, the Director of IFJ
Africa Office, Dakar, said research has shown that there are deficits in terms
of climate change reportage in Africa.
Meanwhile, he said, Africa was the hardest
hit or affected continent of the effects of climate change.
He said another reason that called on
journalists to focus on climate change and sanitation was that many parts of
Africa relied heavily on agriculture for survival, meanwhile, climate change
had a consequence on the growth of agriculture.
“We, journalists, must allow ourselves to be
used as a tool to educate the public on the subject matter. We need to create
awareness on climate change that is geared towards attitudinal change” he said.
Mr Martin Segtub, a Lecturer and Climate
Change Communication Researcher, speaking on the topic: “The Reality of Climate
Change: From Global to Local,” said the evidence of climate change is seen in
the rising global temperature, warming of the oceans, and shrinking key sheets.
Others were the decreased snow cover, rise
of sea level, and extreme events like heat waves, extreme rainfall, floods,
wildfires and drought.
He said human activities such as building,
industrial operations, transportation, electronic and heat production, and
agriculture contributed to greenhouse gas emissions which affected climate
change.
All these, he said, would to be controlled
only if the world especially Africa, which was greatly affected by climate
change made positive efforts to curb the menace of climate change.
GNA
