GREEN GUIDE - Markham Publishing

Taking a fresh approach to the newsAlan Massam of the Environmental Communicators’ Organisationsuggests that there is a different way to interpret and report on events.Established in 1972 after the first UN Conference onthe Human Environment in Stockholm, theEnvironmental Communicators’ Organisation (ECO)is a small, low energy and radical group, staffed byvolunteers. The group’s aim is to bring a green interpretationof significant news events to the attentionof professional journalists and broadcasters.In 1972 leading scientists expressed warnings aboutthe growth of human population and the potentialbreakdown of the planet’s ecosystems if rampantconsumption was not curbed. Many words havebeen said and printed subsequently to endorse this,but very little has actually happened to reverse thetrend. In fact the conclusions of the Earth Summitin Rio in 1992 were very similar to those ofStockholm 20 years earlier.The ECO group believes that much of this is due tothe bias of the media towards optimism so that consumptionwill proceed upwards, the frame of mindbeing that negative papers do not sell. However, theECO Journalists, as they are also known, assert thatradical changes in human behaviour will not beachieved by a pessimistic approach and work todraw attention to positive developments.An example of misleading media coverage is the BSEcrisis which was still concentrating on the effect ofbeef exports when it had become clear that a potentialvery devastating and horrible disease had beenreleased into the human food chain. Similar doubtsin the angle of this type of media coverage can beseen with the more recent foot and mouth epidemic.The same applies to global warming which could havevery serious effect in this island when our coastalnuclear power stations begin to face flood threats, butthese factors are never discussed. Global warmingmay turn out to be the biggest disaster in human historybut when will the media recognise these threats?An example of ECO’s complacency is the press’sresponse to the meeting of the UN’sIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change inShanghai in January 2001. This body not onlyannounced that the ‘human factor’ was now perceivedto be a major contributory factor to globalwarming, but that increased temperatures couldprovoke flooding which would ‘endanger millionsof people in low-lying areas.’ However, the newsreceived very modest coverage compared to thepolitical dramas in the UK.ECO works to help publicise environmental issuessuch as: tropical rain forest destruction; the extinctionof species; severe pollution of habitat; globalwarming; human population growth; depletion offinite natural resources and Third World debt.The relevance of such issues to individuals remainunappreciated by many despite the millions ofwords written annually about the environment.The group publishes an occasional newsletter dealingwith key environmental topics like energy policy,transport policy, land access. ECO believes theirpublications ‘often make the apparently illogicalbehaviour of politicians easier to understand.’ Theyalso draw attention whenever possible to positivedevelopments in environmental issues, for examplethe publication of Agenda 21 which arose from theEarth Summit in Rio in 1992. Additionally, ECOoffers PR support to selected green pressure groups.As ECO writes: ‘Trying to get the media to take biologicalproblems seriously is an uphill struggle, partly dueto the concern of proprietors to avoid upsetting theapplecart and reducing profits. All ‘Greens’ must workmuch harder to achieve a sustainable lifestyle and asecure future for our children and grandchildren.’For more information, contact Alan Massam at8 Hooks Cross, Watton-at-Stone, Hertford SG143RYT: 01920 830 527E: alanmassam@compuserve.com373