Fighting climate change faces a barrier we’re not paying attention to
Pakistan regularly features on the list of the top ten most vulnerable countries in the world to the impacts of climate change – in fact, it was ranked as 7th in terms of most economic and human losses in the world from the impacts of disasters between 1994 and 2014. And while the Government of Pakistan has stepped up and submitted a plan to the UNFCCC pledging to cut carbon emissions, the fact remains that the policies implemented by the government currently do not adequately address climate change.
Communities in Pakistan, especially those living in climate hotspots, are experiencing the impacts of climate change right now, as we saw in the case of the heat wave in Karachi that killed more than a thousand people, or in the case of the continuing extreme weather events such as the recent avalanches in Chitral. While local and national media report on these issues, it is rarely framed in the context of climate change, with reports focusing more on losses and damages from these events rather than why they happen.
Studies suggest that there are anywhere between 77 and 61 indigenous languages spoken in Pakistan, but the media landscape continues to be dominated by Pakistan’s two “official” languages, effectively sidelining communities unfamiliar with both.
And a study by Climate Tracker reports that reporting on climate change, especially for marginalised local communities, is more important than ever.
Mohsin Babbar, a renowned environmental journalist from Sindh, agreed: “I believe that the media plays an important role in agenda setting. The international media for example is actively pursuing climate change, and the stories published on climate change become leading stories, be it print or electronic media. In Sindh, that is not the case. Stories on climate change are never the lead stories. If you do see a story on climate change, it is almost always linked to an event being held by an NGO.”
Allah Bux Arisar, an Environmental Journalist, said that Urdu and English are the most commonly used languages for reporting on climate change, even in Sindh. “If we produce content in Sindhi and Urdu, it is not accessible to people in international audiences. If we want our reporting to affect policies, it is necessary to do it in English. However, if we talk about educating communities, this has to be done in local languages.”
However, reporting in local languages is easier said than done. This is due to the fact that local languages are rarely taught in schools, but also because most indigenous languages in Pakistan are unwritten. Noor Pamiri, a journalist from GB, explained that it was because most of the indigenous languages are not written languages. They don’t have their own scripts and they are not really developed languages. Due to the lack of scripts it is not surprising that radio has traditionally dominated Pakistan’s media landscape, followed by TV and now the rise of social media- as you do not need to be proficient in reading or writing to access either of these.
Watanyar Khilji, a senior environmental journalist from Balochistan, highlights in the report the dominance of Urdu media. “For indigenous languages, I can tell you that in Balochistan, Brahqi, Balochi, Pashto and Sindhi in very small pockets are spoken. There is one paper in Pahsto, Naway Jwand, and around 3 in Balochi- but they are not widely circulated or read at all. They are not important here, and not more than 2 or 300 hundred copies are circulated. Urdu papers however are printed in the thousands, and reach every area of Balochistan.” he said. “Indigenous languages don’t have the same status as urdu ones. For example, if i write an article in Pahsto, it probably won’t be read by more than a few people in Quetta, and probably not reach target audiences. The same is the case in Balochi.”
The status of indigenous languages in Pakistan’s media is not the only barrier. In terms of climate reporting, the study found that one of the main barriers is a lack of capacity of journalists, particularly those writing for local publications, to write about climate change impacts, coupled with a lack of data specific to Pakistan available for them to write. Izharullah, a journalist from KP, states that “We don’t have experts in my region who can understand this region’s dynamic when it comes to climate reporting. Secondly, government agencies like rarely conduct research on climate change. So we face difficulty in reporting because we don’t have concrete data for our story.”
But there is also an issue of the lack of media uptake of climate change issues- which is just not seen as breaking news, and media groups are not interested in producing content about it. Haroon Akram, a Climate Reality corps leader and journalist from Punjab, feels that journalists are not motivated to write about climate change, as other issues will get them more screen time. “When journalists enter this field, they have icons in mind such as Hamid Mir or Hassan Nisar or other big names, and they try to replicate their work. As a journalist, I won’t want to cover climate change or environment, which is considered a less important topic”, he said, “We prefer to go for more mainstream topics that are being covered by popular media- what is on screen. We like to be onscreen and we will cover what will get us there.”
While language may not be the only contributing factor to the dearth of climate discourse in Pakistan’s local media, this study highlights that the dominance of national languages in the media landscape may be influencing the way in which climate messaging does not reach the most vulnerable communities. 79.9% of Pakistan’s print media is in Urdu – yet less than 8% speak it as a first language. Until the English-Urdu-local language gaps in media are filled, it is unlikely that timely and accessible climate messaging will reach the communities most at need.
