Information rain

This is my first entry here. So, a little introduction is necessary. Charles Nisz, 28 years old, Brazilian, economics and environmental journalist. It will be a pleasure to participate in Th!nkAbout climate change competition.

Presentation made, lets discuss a little about an almost-forgotten phenomena and about the press role in climate change discussion. In a matter of seconds, this article published at Slate magazine send me back to late 80´s. At this time, I was a 8 or 9 year old boy, and acid rain was the principal subject of environment agenda.

As Slate piece states, acid rain was named "the malaria of biosphere". But, despite the literacy of Canada´s Prime Minister, the problem was not solved. "According to the National Emissions Inventory, sulfur dioxide emissions from all sources fell from nearly 26 million tons in 1980 to 11.4 million tons in 2008. Nitrogen oxides decreased from 27 million tons to 16.3 million tons in the same time frame", says Slate.

Scientists, then, were accused of "being alarmist", exagerating the effects of acid rain in lakes of North Hemisphere. In fact, even with this dramatic reduction of emissions, the rain pH levels down from 5.0 - the natural acidic level to to 4.0 in 1970 decade. So, the water became 10 times more acidic.

But what media discuss about acid rain nowadays? The range and level of discussion is almost none. This is the first point. And this bad statement leads for the second one.

Nowadays, everyone that claims about global warming is considered an alarmist. Media will play a decisive role in discussion of this critical issue. The Climate Change Conference (Cop-15), that will happen at Copenhagen in December 7-18 only will work if all countries arrive there with strong and factual propposals to face the problem.

More than this, the media must not only inform, but explain and show to all citizens HOW to struggle climate changes.