Page 38 - Carbon Capitalism and Communication Confronting Climate Crisis

20 G. MURDOCK AND B. BREVINI

At the same time, given its continuing centrality as the primary source of
popular information and interpretation, it is also necessary to think through
possible ways of mobilising the news system in the service of increased
popular understanding of the causes of climate crisis and how they might
be addressed.
In Chap. 13, Robert Hackett and Shane Gunster provide a compre-
hensive overview of the options available for cultivating journalism that
engages more fully and proactively with the challenges of climate crisis.
They explore three possibilities: the potential for integrating environmental
reporting into journalistic paradigms organised around commitments to
civic and peace journalism; the possibility of environmental movements
collaborating with supportive journalists to reframe climate politics; and
the prospects for vibrant and sustainable alternative media.
In Chap. 14, Alan Rusbridger, former editor of The Guardian UK,
discusses one major contemporary journalistic initiative, the institution’s
ground-breaking ‘Keep it in the Ground’ campaign. Born from a desire to
take action commensurate with the problem, it generated a complex public
debate and resulted in several major investors, including the Gates
Foundation, divesting from leading fossil fuel companies.
In Chap. 15, Greenpeace CEO David Ritter discusses the problems
inherent in mainstream climate reporting and the global promotion of
consumerism as the key to personal fulfilment, highlighting the relationship
between climate change and capitalist reliance on carbon-based sources of
energy. The Australian media sector presents a particularly entrenched
opposition to calls for reform with dominant players in the commercial
news system, led by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., persistently promot-
ing the illusion that the dominance of man-made climate change remains
contestable and placing science on a level footing with opinion under the
banner of ‘balance’. As an alternative, Greenpeace has frequently utilised
online media to spur grassroots activism and apply pressure to large cor-
porations, to great effect.
In Chap. 16, Blair Palese describes her work with 350.org, fore-
grounding the success of globally-run divestment campaigns over the last
2 years in building a movement to stop new fossil fuels and rapidly reduce
greenhouse emissions by countering the power of the fossil fuel industry
with the power of people taking collective action,