At the Society of Environmental Journalist's annual meeting in Roanoke, Virginia (sponsored by Virginia Tech), the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and Director-General of TERI, Dr. Rajendra K Pachauri gave the keynote address.

This was a fascinating presentation for the new ideas he presented (new to me anyway) and for the info he presented to an audience that one would assume is in the 99th percentile of global warming knowledge. 

A quick comment about the fourth assessment report of the IPCC - He devoted the first part of his speech to establishing the science of global warming and bolstering the credibility of the IPCC. I have to admit, it was a little disorienting. It has been a little while since I have had to justify the scientific basis for global warming. I thought the IPCC report from last year closed the debate and I was unsure as to why he spent so much time on this. It could be part of a standard speech but I wonder if SEJ asked him to address it. Listening, I hoped he would get into solutions and business opportunities soon.

In discussing the impacts of global warming, Chairman Pachauri showed startling statistics on water stress by 2020 due to global warming (sorry, still looking for the link to the slide).

By far the most interesting part of his speech was when he addressed the role of media and its responsibilities when covering global warming. In his opinion, (paraphrasing here) "the media's role is to focus and get the right messages across. The media should inform and stimulate the audience and emphasize existing solutions."

Chairman Pachauri then got into specifics with two suggestions to the reporters in the audience about how they should cover global warming.

1. Media reports of global warming should emphasize global warming's day-to-day relevance. Go beyond cyclical coverage of impacts that will occur by 2020 or 2050. We need to address what is happening now.

2. Reporters should link global warming to other issue of sustainable development. He believes we need to fight climate change goes through the creation of a more sustainable society.

An interesting point the Chairman mentioned is that news of rising emissions in developing countries is dominating US media coverage of climate change. He did not give numbers to back this up but I agree that it is a prominent issue. It deserves attention but it is not an excuse for America to sit on its hands. A. We are historically responsible for more global warming pollution than any other country. The lion's share of the problem rests on our shoulders. B. We need to do everything we can to solve this problem and this includes leading. America's economy and our prestige in the world will benefit if we pull out all the stops on becoming leaders for global warming solutions. We have lost ground to other countries (Germany, Japan, Spain just to name a few) in producing and selling global warming solutions, especially in the form of solar panels and wind turbines. Blaming India and China while we sit on our hands is a profound failure of leadership and unworthy of the country that won two World wars, helped rebuild Europe through the Marshall plan, put a man on the moon...I could go on but you get the idea.

Chariman Pachauri put up a quote by the advertising executive, William Bernbach, about the responsibilities of people who work in mass media. It is worth quoting here:

All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgerize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.

Not much I can add to that.

Towards the end of the presentation, Chairman Pachauri showed a truly great video on rural electrification in India. The video is only three minutes long but it tells quite a story.

To see it click here.

The video begins by stating the problem of a lack of electricity in rural India. The video goes into detail about what life is like without electricity. Life without electricity leads to health problems (inhaling smoke almost constantly) and missed opportunities (children work during the day and cannot study at night so their education suffers). But after stating the problem, the video moves quickly into the solution which lies with solar lanterns. It is environmental communication at its best.