Telling the Climate Change Story

The environmental alarm clock just went off and it's five minutes to midnight.

On Friday 4 July Professor Ross Garnaut released his 537 page report about global climate change and its impact on Australia. It pulls no punches. Early economic modeling shows that unless we take action now, by 2100:

• Around 4.8 per cent will be wiped off Australia’s projected GDP.
• Projected household consumption will drop by 5.4 per cent.
• Real wages will decline by 7.8 per cent.
  

If we sit on our hands now the quality of life for our kids, grandkids and other Australians will be considerably worse than our current lifestyles.

The report poses special challenges for Australia's communicators. As the nation's story tellers, from this point onwards, more of us are likely to be called upon to use our communications skills to:

• Help the man and woman in the street make sense of the claims and counter claims on what should be done in the next few years and beyond.
• Help people understand their role in finding solutions. (This year's Earth Hour is a good example of telling people how they can become involved).
• Explain simply the complexities of the tough measures Australia must take to mitigate against the effects of climate change.
• Accurately communicate the impacts of these measures on whole industries, whole communities right down to individuals.

If the tobacco industry is an example, some in the PR community may be called upon by clients and others to fight rearguard actions to preserve sectional interests. They may be asked to sow doubt and confusion by communicating that change is unnecessary or the adjustment is too harsh. Mnay more may be tasked to green wash their organisations ie to promote token changes done more for good PR than sustainable posterity.

As a group I hope Australia's communicators put the global and national interest ahead of client and organisational self interest.