Media guru and climate change expert, Aliu Akoshile, has warned against continued threat to climate change.
He attributed the bulk of threat to change in climate, including Ozone layer depletion and Green House emissions, to human activity and inactivity.
Akoshile, the publisher of Nature News, an Environment newspaper, gave the insight while presenting his paper titled: Journalism In An Era Of Climate Change: Responsibilities, challenges and opportunities”, during a workshop at Dangote Cement, Obajana, Kogi State, on Tuesday.
The presentation was made at a 2-day Environmental Journalism Workshop, was organised was by Climate Africa Media Initiative and Center (CAMIC) in collaboration with Dangote Group, where journalists were not only built with capacity to report the Environment but were also given insight into the danger of climate change.
He also stated that the subject is a threat to human existence, thus calling for adoption of urgent and proactive measures to arrest the growing tide.
Read Also:
He urged journalists to intensify their reports on climate change, Ozone layer depletion and Green House emissions, to enable individuals, groups and corporate establishments to be alive to their responsibilities.
He further urged them to understand the basics and concept of the environment in order to enrich thei reportage and advocacy of environmental issues, effectively.
While decrying a situation where fake news derived through citizen journalism tends to affect the integrity of the conventional media, he stressed the need to engage audience through interactive, solution journalism and constructive narrative.
“Towards an effective climate change journalism, a shift in data journalism and visualization, collaborative and investigative journalism, there should be a need to engage audience through interactive, solution journalism and constructive narrative.
” I therefore charged Journalists to use their reports to translate scientific findings for public use, as environmental reportage is a vehicle that should bridge the gap between experts and readers , as well as to provide climate literacy and behavioural change.
”To achieve the aim of rescuing the environment from climate change , there should be diverse engagements with stakeholders on information sourcing and to reporting it in a away that can be understood by all classes of readers”, he stated.
