Before our wildfires begin
How can reporters accurately weave climate change into stories about fires, floods and other extreme weather events – or even into stories on finance, for that matter?
When writing about extreme weather events, it can help journalists to have a thorough, handy, searchable overview of climate reporting issues to use as reference; a resource containing info ranging from the basics of climate science to government policy and achievements (or failures), why and how to track the role of the fossil fuel industry, and a list of resources, scientists and other experts happy to take their calls.
The Climate Reporting Guide for South African journalists is such a document. Whether you’re reporting on fires that might begin raging in the dry summer season of the Western Cape, how farmers in other provinces are dealing with drought, or even the balance sheets of fossil fuel companies, our guide will give you the climate low-down you’re seeking.
Interested? Read the first section of the guide below. The full guide can be found here.
Introduction
This guide is intended for South African journalists who are covering climate, environment and energy-related stories. It contains information on how the global climate emergency affects South Africa, tips for journalists on how to report accurately on global heating, tips for editors on how to give the issue due prominence, a list of contact organisations and experts for comment, and some information on fossil-fuel divestment.
The guide has been written by experienced journalists under the auspices of Fossil Free SA, and reviewed by partners and experts. It is a working document and we welcome feedback.
If you are time-stressed in writing a story, feel free to skip to the relevant section.
This guide includes:
An introduction to the climate crisis in the South African context: what climate change is, what South Africans need to know about it, and how it relates to our energy system challenges
An overview of resources, links, case studies and sources for climate journalism
A brief explanation of fossil fuel divestment as a global and South African social movement in response to the climate emergency
Why South Africans need to know about the climate crisis
Given that we are a country with a host of urgent, visible and apparently intractable problems, it’s important to understand why climate issues deserve special attention:
The problems:
Climate change is already worsening all our existing problems including hunger, poverty, violence, inequality and environmental degradation. More intense heat waves, heavier rainfall and other weather extremes further increase risks for human health and ecosystems.
The world has already heated 1.1C. Much of South Africa is warming at twice the global average and is on track to warm by 5-6C in this century.
The Africa chapter of the April 2022 IPCC report states that even under high levels of adaptation, Africa could face very high risk levels at a mean global temperature increase of 2C. At 4C, the risks for Africa’s food security are very high, with limited potential for reducing this risk through adaptation. Many climate scientists believe humanity overall will be unable to adapt to a global temperature increase of 4C.
Climate change is widely agreed to be a threat to the sustainability of our entire global civilisation, and to much other life on Earth.
Climate change is a particular threat to African countries, as we are both likely to experience more change than most inhabited regions and are less resilient than more developed countries.
Africa’s vulnerability to climate change is likely to accelerate migration pressure on South Africa from even more climate-vulnerable regions.
Find more detail in the sections below on “Our warming world” and “Our warming country”.
The opportunities:
Taking the right action now could result in the transformations essential for a sustainable, equitable world.
The apparent intractability of the climate problem reveals many other weak spots in the way humanity has developed. Slowing climate breakdown can be a guide to solving many of our other problems.
Ending uneconomic growth: The main cause of climate change is fossil fuel use. But fossil fuels have also become extremely problematic in many other ways. Their net costs to society – in climate destabilisation, air and water pollution, corruption, warfare, economic instability, plastic pollution – now exceed their benefits.
Eliminating fossil fuels in favour of less destructively sourced energy and material inputs therefore offers the promise of greater social and economic stability and prosperity.
Read more of the Climate Change Reporting Guide here. And remember, we’d love to get your feedback! Feel free to drop us a message.