Page 198 - Carbon Capitalism and Communication Confronting Climate Crisis

CHAPTER 16

An Interview with David Ritter:

Mobilising on Climate Change—The
Experience of Greenpeace

David Ritter and Benedetta Brevini

David Ritter returned to Australia to take up his role as CEO of
Greenpeace Australia Pacific in 2012 after five years working in various
senior campaigns positions with Greenpeace in London. He believes that
the current mess of climate change policy in Australia is a consequence of
the maladjustment of politics and political economy.

BB: On the third page of the latest COP 21 Paris agreement is the
acknowledgement that the new CO 2 target won’t keep the global
temperature rise below 2 °C, the level that was once set as the critical
safe limit. So we will officially pass the 2 °C level, either in 2036 or in
2038. What do you think of the media coverage? Do you think that
the media have done a good job in communicating adequately on the
Paris Agreement?
DR: There is no question that overall media coverage of global warming is
inadequate in the face of the scale of the issue … Global warming dwarfs

D. Ritter
Sydney, Australia
B. Brevini (&)
University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
e-mail: benedetta.brevini@sydney.edu.au

© The Author(s) 2017 193
B. Brevini and G. Murdock (eds.), Carbon Capitalism and Communication,
Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57876-7_16