PressEthic

The media’s coverage of environmental issues has evolved greatly in the past several years because of an increasing interest on the part of the public. Yet, it seems that unless problems of Mother Nature have reached catastrophic levels (say an oil spill of the coast of Spain), these news stories are either underrepresented or fail to link the economic and political impact that they have on society.

Take for example, the war on drugs. Most people do not equate it with the use of herbicides. Yet cocaine and pollutant chemicals have an important but largely unknown connection. Over the years, coca and poppy cultivation in Colombia has significantly damaged the region. In order to farm the plant, growers use pesticides to kill insects that travel through the soil into the ground water and eventually to streams and rivers. While these chemicals are toxic to bugs that destroy their crops, they also contaminate animals and people in greater concentrations. However, in a recent initiative to wipe out coca growing in Colombia, anti-narcotics teams are proposing to spray herbicides on coca farms that would do even worse damage to this Latin American country’s ecosystem.

The physical and psychological effects of drugs on society are always welcome to discussion in the media. But I could only find two articles on this recent controversial campaign. Why isn’t this new development of the illegal narcotics industry a mainstream topic in the news? Maybe it’s because its not directly related to the social problem? Or is it because reporters simply don’t touch it because it deals with the environment? According to an article by the BBC, reactive stories on the environment don’t capture public attention the way that political and economic stories do.

Environmental issues are complex creatures to report on. There is almost never a one-time solution to the problem and rather require continual advocacy on the part of correspondents to inform the public on the dangers and preventative measures of ozone depletion or the controversies surrounding ultraviolet radiation. And maybe this is the obstacle for reporters to appeal to their audiences. In reference to the BBC article I mentioned above, news outlets are often criticized for being too negative in its reporting of environmental subjects. But media houses need to keep pursuing these important stories because they ultimately lead to vital developments in public policy.