(New) Ecological Problems: Post-pandemic Climate Change Remains an Oceania Existential Threat

https://doi.org/10.22146/ikat.v4i2.59677

David Robie(1*)

(1) Pacific Media Centre, School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


Environmental damage, climate change, and increasingly intense natural disasters are serious problems faced by humanity in this millennium. More ecological damage occurs due to expensive and destructive human activities. Illegal logging, expansion of mining areas, pollution of water sources, overfishing, trade-in protected wildlife continue to happen, and the scale is even greater. Meanwhile, climate change is increasingly visible and impacting communities in urban to rural areas. Coastal cities in the United States to coastal villages in the north of Java and the microstates of the South Pacific facing the real impact of sea-level rise. Disasters that occur bring not only material losses but also socio-economic consequences for people affected. The emergence of new ecological problems is being faced by humanity. The complexity of ecological problems is nonlinear, turbulent, and dynamic. This was the theme of the panel (New) Ecological Problems: Defining the Relationship between Humans and the Environment at the Symposium on Social Science 2020. This paper, part of the SOSS 2020 panel on ecological problems, argues for countries to overhaul and “reset” their public health and economic systems to ones based on strengthening multilateral institutions and collaboration, and to abandon or seriously curtail neoliberalism models that have failed. It also argues that the profession of journalism also needs to approach climate change strategies with as much urgency as for addressing the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The current crisis is a precursor to further crises unless the globe changes its ways to heal both people and the planet.


Keywords


Climate Change; Communication; COVID-19; Environmental Damage; Pacific Islands

Full Text:

PDF


References

‘It’s all over for New Zealand’ – Trump attacks NZ’s Covid-19 response for a third time. (2020, August 21). TVNZ One News. Retrieved from https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/its-over-new-zealand-trump-attacks-nzs-covid-19-response-third-time

”Talanoa is not just about telling your story, but listening to the stories of others” – Chief negotiator’sspeech at SB48 side event. (2018). Retrieved from COP23 Fiji website: https://cop23.com.fj/talanoa-not-just-telling-story-listening-stories-others-chief-negotiators-speech-sb48-side-event/

Allen, L. (2004, August). Will Tuvalu Disappear Beneath the Sea? Global warming threatens to swamp a small island nation. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/will-tuvalu-disappear-beneath-the-sea-180940704/

Blue Pacific’s call for urgent global climate change action. (2019, May 17). Friends of the Earth Australia. Retrieved from https://www.foe.org.au/pacific_islands_forum_statement_2019

Carrington, D. (2020, July 23). Cost of preventing next pandemic ‘equal to just 2% of COVID-19 economic damage. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/23/preventing-next-pandemic-fraction-cost-covid-19-economic-fallout

Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. (n.d). Hurricanes and climate change. Retrieved from https://www.c2es.org/content/hurricanes-and-climate-change/

Chaudhary, F. (2020, September 9). ‘Talanoa’ in spotlight. The Fiji Times. Retrieved from https://www.fijitimes.com/talanoa-in-spotlight/

Dobson, A. P., Pimm, S. L., Hannah, L., Kaufman, L., Ahumada, J. A., Ando, A. W., Bernstein, A., Busch, J., Daszak, P., Engelmann, J., Kinnaird, M. F., Li, B. V., Loch-Temzelides, T., Lovejoy, T., Nowak, K., Roehrdanz, P. R., Vale, M. M. (2020). Ecology and economics for pandemic prevention. Science, 369(6502), 379-381. doi: 10.1126/science.abc3189

Editor, A. (2020). Drop Western ‘mental maps’ for Asian new order, says Mahbubani. Retrieved from Asia Pasific Report website: https://asiapacificreport.nz/2020/08/27/drop-western-mental-maps-for-asian-new-order-says-mahbubani/

Editor, A. (2021). The hope that arises in spite of the chaotic pro-Trump storm. Retrieved from Asia Pasific Report website: https://asiapacificreport.nz/2021/01/09/bryan-bruce-the-hope-that-arises-in-spite-of-the-chaotic-pro-trump-storm/

Fahn, J. (2019, April 22). Climate change: Investigating the story of the century. Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN). Retrieved from https://gijn.org/2019/04/22/investigating-the-story-of-the-century/

Farbotko, C. (2019). Climate change displacement: Towards ontological security. In C. Klöck & M. Fink (Eds.), Dealing with climate change on small islands: Towards effective and sustainable adaptation? (pp. 251–266). Göttingen: Göttingen University Press.

Guterres calls climate change ‘the battle of my life’. (2019, May 16). RNZ Pacific. Retrieved from https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/389305/guterres-calls-climate-change-the-battle-of-my-life

Covid19 Dashboard. (2020, January 27). John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center World Map. Retrieved from https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Guterres, A. (2020). Appeal to Address and Counter COVID-19 Hate Speech. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2020-05-08/appeal-address-and-counter-covid-19-hate-speech

Heinig, F., & Nessen, C. (Producers), & Grossman, N. (Director). (2020). I am Greta [Documentary]. Germany: Hulu Films. Director: Nathan Grossman

Holland, E. (2020). Tropical Cyclone Harold meets the Novel Coronavirus: Dispatch from the Pacific. Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa, 26(1), 243-251. doi:10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1099

Intergovernmental Pane on Climate Change. (2018). Global warming of 1.5o. IPCC Special Report. Switzerland: IPCC.

Internews. (2020). Internews’ Strategic Approach to COVID-19: Information Saves Lives. Retrieved from https://internews.org/sites/default/files/2020-05/Internews_Strategic_Approach_COVID19_April2020.pdf

Lastikova, M., & Handerson, M. (2019, September 11). Cool to care? Social change, the climate emergency and the ‘snowflake generation’. Cost of Living. Retrieved August 18, 2020, from https://www.cost-ofliving.net/

Lyons, K. (2019, May 8). New Zealand introduces bill for zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/08/new-zealand-introduces-bill-for-zero-carbon-emissions-by-2050

Maslog, C., Robie, D., & Adriano, J. (2019). Science writing and climate change. Manila: Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC).

Nash, C. (2015). ENVIRONMENT: Atolls in the ocean—canaries in the mine? Australian journalism contesting climate change impacts in the Pacific. Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa, 21(1), 79-97. doi:10.24135/pjr.v21i1.149

Nunn, P., & Kumar, R. (2020, August 14). Pacific people have been ‘pummelled and demeaned‘ for too long – now they’re fighting back. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/pacific-people-have-been-pummelled-and-demeaned-for-too-long-now-theyre-fighting-back-144278

PACNEWS. (2019). Climate change is ‘no laughing matter’, Fiji’s PM Frank Bainimarama tells Australia during Scott Morrison’s Pacific trip. The Fiji Times. Retrieved from https://www.fijitimes.com/climate-change-is-no-laughing-matter-fijis-pm-frank-bainimarama-tells-australia-during-scott-morrisons-pacific-trip/

Prime minister’s remarks at welcome dinner for Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. (2019). Retrieved from The Fijian Government website: https://www.fiji.gov.fj/Media-Centre/Speeches/HON-PM-BAINIMARAMA-S-REMARKS-AT-WELCOME-DINNER-FOR

“Cowards don’t make history” – Prime Minister Bainimarama’s Address at the Australian Emission Reduction Summit. (2019). Retrieved from https://cop23.com.fj/cowards-dont-make-history-prime-minister-bainimaramas-address-at-the-australian-emission-reduction-summit/

Remekeis, A. (2019, December 14). Rupert Murdoch says ‘no climate change deniers around’ – but his writers prove him wrong. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/15/rupert-murdoch-says-no-climate-change-deniers-around-but-his-writers-prove-him-wrong

Reporters Without Borders. (2020). RSF’s 2020 round-up: 50 journalists killed, two-thirds killed in countries ”at peace”. Retrieved from https://rsf.org/en/news/rsfs-2020-round-50-journalists-killed-two-thirds-countries-peace

RNZ. (2020, August 17). Politicians react to President Trump's comments about a 'big surge' in NZ's Covid cases [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzNE753k_oI

Robie, D. (2014). ‘Carbon colonialism’: Pacific environmental risk, media credibility and a deliberative perspective. Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa, 20(2), 59-75. doi:10.24135/pjr.v20i2.166

Robie, D. (2019a). Karoronga, kele’a, talanoa, tapoetethakot and va: expanding millennial notions of a ‘Pacific way’ journalism education and media research culture. Media Asia, 46(1-2), 1-17. doi: 10.1080/01296612.2019.1601409

Robie, D. (2019b). Running out of time. In C. Crispin, D. Maslog, D. Robie. & J. Adriano (Eds.), Science writing and climate change (pp. Page range of chapter). Manila: Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication.

Robie, D. (2020, August). The sociology of a pandemic: Countering a COVID ‘disinfodemic’ with a campus media initiative.Paper presented at the Symposium on Social Science 2020 virtual conference webinar, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Robie, D., & Marbrook, J. (2020). Bearing Witness: A Pacific Climate Change Crisis Documentary and Journalism Development Project. Asia Pacific Media Educator, 30(1), 1-15. doi: 10.1177/1326365X20945417

Rytz, M. (2018). Anote’s Ark [Film]. Canada: EyeSteelFilm.

Saad-Filho, A. (2020). From COVID-19 to the end of neoliberalism. Critical Sociology, 46(4-5), 477-485. doi: 10.1177/0896920520929966

Scientific consensus: Earth’s climate is warming. (n.d.). NASA Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. Retrieved from https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/

Stop Tuvalu and ‘the world from sinking’ UN chief tells island nation facing existential threat from rising seas. (2019, May 17). UN News. Retrieved from https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/05/1038661

Toito’ona, R. (2018, December 22). How successful was the talanoa dialogue in COP24? Earth Journalism Network. Retrieved from https://earthjournalism.net/stories/how-successful-was-the-talanoa-dialogue-in-cop24

Trump again claims NZ has big outbreak of COVID-19. (2020, August 21). TVNZ One News. Retrieved from https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/its-over-new-zealand-trump-attacks-nzs-covid-19-response-third-time

Weissbach, U. (2017). The Solar Nation of Tokelau: An adventure in documentary making. Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa, 23(1), 55-64. doi:10.24135/pjr.v23i1.206

Wilkinson, M. (2020). The Carbon Club: How a network of influential climate sceptics, politicians and business leaders fought to control Australia’s climate policy. Sydney, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Wilson, G., & Staffell, I. (2019, January 11). Britain has shifted 30pc of its electricity away from fossil fuels in just nine years. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/britain-has-shifted-30-of-its-electricity-away-from-fossil-fuels-in-just-nine-years-108969



DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/ikat.v4i2.59677

Article Metrics

Abstract views : 2330 | views : 1618

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2021 David Robie

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

View My Stats