‘Media Must Find a Way for the Message’
Sabina Zaccaro of the Inter Press
Service (IPS) interviews IPCC vice-chairman Mohan Munasinghe
While there is clear evidence of growing global warming, “the
political will to address it is still lacking,” says Mohan Munasinghe,
co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as vice-chairman of the United
Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Munasinghe, also chairman of the Sri Lanka-based Munasinghe Institute
for Development (MIND), which has contributed to the work of the IPCC,
is among the keynote speakers at the Oct. 23 high-level seminar at The
Hague organised by the Inter Press Service (IPS), the rights and
development organisation Oxfam Novib, and the Netherlands’ National
Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO).
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IPCC vice-chairman Mohan Munasinghe |
The meeting focuses on the support base for sustainable development
and international cooperation, and seek ways to deepen the roles and
responsibilities of both mainstream and alternative media in this.
Media will be urged to look at the connections between issues.
Development, poverty and climate change are all related problems,
Munasinghe said. “In order to make development more sustainable in the
next 10-15 years, these problems must be addressed all together.”
Excerpts from the interview:
IPS: What is the
danger in isolating these issues ?
Mohan Munasinghe: There are several risks related to isolation. The
most important is conflict. When you look for a solution to one problem,
it may make the other problem worse.
The second problem is that you may have duplications, and this
happens when people who work for solving one problem are sometimes doing
the same thing that other people are doing already. In that case, they
are wasting resources; economic resources but also political will. The
third and most important issue is lack of cooperation. In order to face
all these multiple crises, we have to get everybody together, we have to
create that sense of consensus, a spirit of global consciousness. If
everybody is working on their own problem, it is like going back to the
old selfish solutions.
IPS: How can such a
consensus be built, and can the media help ?
MM: Building a consensus means starting with the transition, this
means to make development more sustainable. This is where I think the
media have a key role. Consensus can be built looking for what we call
the win-win solutions. We have to create the feeling that all are
working together.
Of course there are some difficulties...the modern capitalist system
works exactly the opposite, it is built on competition; and that is not
going to help us to solve these global problems and develop a global
consciousness.
Ideologically, isolationism is based on the capitalist market system,
and seems to encourage this idea that if everybody thinks only of
themselves, then social or collective good will emerge. But this is
manifestly untrue.
If there are no safeguards, not only legal, but moral and ethical
safeguards, we are going to have what is called a race to the bottom,
that is, the people with the worst behaviour will win.
IPS: Would a
scientific rather than ideological approach work better?
MM: In science we have seen the success of reductionism. Everything
you study in greater and greater detail, even a very obscure, detailed
topic, makes you an expert in that. But you know almost nothing about
many other areas...
What we need here is trans-disciplinarity, breaking the boundaries of
discipline but also breaking the boundaries of stakeholders. We are all
stakeholders together, so let us now forget the competition and look
more at cooperation.
If you look at the way ancient societies have been built — take the
Egyptian civilisation that lasted thousands of years — they were built
on cooperation. We have forgotten that cooperative side. Many
communities, particularly poor rural communities, have survived because
of the community spirit.
IPS: But cooperation is also opposed
by economic factors...
MM: Absolutely. In fact,
the erosion of traditional values which we are seeing in many parts of
the developing world is leading to a breakdown of social capital.
Sustainable development has an economic, a social dimension, and an
environmental dimension. The economic dimension is clearer, we want to
produce more, increase GNP (gross national product) etc. The
environmental dimension of development is also becoming clear, in the
sense that we all want clean air, clean water and so on. The social
dimension is more complicated, because it is the glue that binds society
together. This ultra-competitive mode, without ethical and moral values,
is instead leading to violence, and will lead to fighting over
resources.
There are some economic forces that are in a way taking the
neo-conservative line...We have to rethink that, and come back to this
concept of social capital. Increasingly, in a globalising world social
capital is not only good for the community and the village and the city
and the country, but for the entire planet.
IPS: After the unequivocal IPCC
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report, are environment and
climate now on top of the political agenda?
MM: There are some
politicians who are like the ostrich, either because they are ignorant
or because they represent lobbies and communities who are profiting from
the present unsustainable system. But there are many others who are very
responsible, who are trying to move in a new direction. We have to
identify the good actors and support them.
As a civil society person, with my institution (MIND), I am entirely
devoted to that, particularly with young people. We make them feel that
as individuals they can make the difference, and also show them the
sense of respect that does not dismiss anybody, even a corrupt
politician; the message is ‘maybe your job is to change them, to go out
and do something’.
And I have the same attitude towards business; we have to work with
all of these people, we need all of them. Some of them are very
difficult to live with, I agree, but that is the job of the social
activists.
IPS: Can you refer explicitly to
politicians and countries performing well?
MM: Well, there are a
number of environmental performance indexes that have been developed by
private think tanks. But these lists are not perfect, and we shouldn’t
be complacent. I mean, ‘top countries’ also need to improve, because if
you are at the top of the list but you still allow other countries to be
at the very bottom, then you’re not doing enough, it is not good enough
to be at the top of the list. That is the consensus building; the
success is pulling other people.
IPS: What could information do ?
MM: I think media have a
tremendous role to play. I am referring to the responsible media,
because there is a spirit of competition among media as well. Everybody
wants to win the Pulitzer Prize, sell products, make money and so on.
So, we need responsible journalism. And I think that increasingly people
are looking for responsible articles.
The problem I have is that I’m in a generation that reads newspapers,
but my children are much more TV oriented, and if I look at my
grandchildren, for them information comes just through You Tube, short
messages and so on. I have no way of reaching those people through what
I write, or even this interview...but you media know the tools. How do
we get to those people, I think this is the challenge. |