How reliable newspapers reports are about climate change and how they link it to sustainable development

Every morning newspapers are distributed across the country, It is one of the most influential ways of providing the nation with news as well as TV and radio. But just how reliable are there reports about climate change. In this blog i will discuss how reliable some reports are by looking at a number of articles on climate change in various papers and if they linked this to sustainable development.

Looking at articles on climate change in The Sun i found allot of strange articles for exp 'Swannin about in sunny Siberia'. This was about how swans apparently were a week late in arriving in Gloucester from Russia. Also 'Experts fear swans will forget way to Gloucester, if they stay to long in Russia'. They provide no proof for this claim they just say 'Experts fear' . There relation to climate change was that a spokesman said 'its been allot warmer for allot longer'. Another article i found in The Sun was 'Beer prices could increase' this is about how a scientist has warned climate change will 'properly' cause a decrease in the production of barley in parts of NZ and Australia. Key word here is 'Properly' no factual proof or reliable source to relate to. These few articles in the Sun were very small and lacked any clear evidence of being fact. What i found looking at different kinds of papers was that The Sun and the Mirror were very bold in there headlines and statements, but didn't back it up with any evidence or sources. The Mirror for example had a headline 'St Andrews under sea by 2050' the quote which though me of this article was 'could be lost to rising sea levels' there was no data or evidence to prove this but instead 'could'.

Looking at articles in the times i found they had more reliable sources and less bold statements. For example ' Climate change will hit tropics as bad as polar regions' they used there information from a reliable source such as the American Geophysical Union (AGU). This article is much more factual than The Suns or The Mirrors, its data was formed from a conference that the AGU had. Its not just a 'spokesman said' or 'experts fear'. They also went on to say about how the AGU launched an attack on Gordan Brown over new generation coal fired power stations. So in this article they have linked climate change to a sustainable development issue. The Times did have allot of sustainable development article's i thought. Also looking at the Guardian i found this was similar to The Times having articles on climate change and linking them to sustainable development.

Overall i found that in The Sun and The Mirror, there headlines are mainly there to draw the eye in of a parser by backed up by little evidence or strong sources. When The Times and Guardian was the other way round factual statements backed up by strong sources and evidence. So some papers are quite reliable and others are not of what i looked at.

The Search for Sustainable Private Cars

Nearly everyone I know as soon as they hit 17 started to learn to drive and also to save up to purchase their own vehicle. In our day and age having a car in the family is a necessity. There are obvious reasons for this, they give us independence we don’t have to rely on bus or train timetables, they are easy to use, and an affordable way of getting around quickly and safely.

The sustainable development indicator 2008 for private cars shows that co2 emissions have increased by 4% between 1990-2006. In the same time the total car km travelled has increased by 20%. Private cars are unsustainable not only do they add to the greenhouse gases they are using a resource that is limited. So why do we use cars? Cars give us freedom to go anywhere within reason at any time, we don’t have to wait around for public transport. Also public transport for example trains are very expensive I would say it is cheaper to drive to destinations. Buses are cheap but are very slow and can triple the time it would take to travel. So what other options do we have for sustainable effective travel?

There are new cars that give out lower emissions such as Honda’s new FCX Clarity which is the first commercial production of a zero emission, hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle. It runs on electricity produced by combining hydrogen with oxygen and emits water vapour. There are also electric cars but the problem with these new advanced more sustainable cars is that they are very expensive so not everyone can afford these. Another option is Biofuel a renewable solar energy store made from plants. The problem with this being that its grown on land that might otherwise be used to feed people, and its limited to very few parts of the country so far. those where alternatives to car options other options to travel consist of using your bike more for short journeys, using public transport instead and try walking. But obviously these are not the desirable options.

At the moment there is no straight alternative to using unsustainable cars, there are new cars that are way more sustainable and I believe will be the future for sustainable private cars. I can’t see public transport being preferred when trains are very expensive and buses are unreliable and slow. The only effective replacement for unsustainable private cars would be a new sustainable fuel, and a lot of money is going into research in order to get this. For exp Exxon Mobil are:
‘Working with the scientific and business communities on leading research to identify economically viable technologies that can meet future energy demand while dramatically reducing global GHG emissions. This includes work on advanced fuels, lubricants and combustion technologies, as well as support for the Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) at Stanford University, which represents the largest-ever privately funded research effort in low-GHG energy.’