Media Coverage of Climate Change for Development

Abstract

Climate variability and change are important factors for societal development. They affect every facet of living things on the globe. The past few decades have been marked by issues of climate change as the world is faced with various challenges. According to BBC World Service (2010), Climate change is one of the most discussed global issues, second only to corruption. Impacts of climate change are projected to be many and varied, ranging from changes in ecosystems to impacts on human systems such as water resources to potential forced human migrations to widespread acidification of the oceans to insurance and reinsurance difficulties (ONeill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009). Overall, the country is expected to be warmer and experience a large degree of rainfall variability with extreme weather events such as severe droughts and floods, which will have far reaching impacts on climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture and tourism that underpin the country’s economy (RoK, n.d). Climate change causes the deterioration of the environment which we live in. Tihagale (2004) ascribes environmental deterioration to two main reasons. The first is the depletion of essential resources because of a need to maintain present-day lifestyles and the deterioration in as well as the destruction of the natural processes which are aimed at sustaining life on earth, whilst the second is the lack of awareness among populations, especially those that reside in rural or undeveloped countries, where due to a need to survive, they engage inactivities that cause and exacerbate environmental problems such as deforestation, soil erosion, pollution and veld fires. The conservation of the environment can only be achieved if residents are more aware of the environmental issues affecting them and the mitigation strategies of handling them. This can only be done through effective communication strategies. MEMR (2012) further argues that climate change is one of the most serious challenges to socioeconomic development whose management requires the active participation of all members of the society both individually and as organised groups.