Climate Change, maybe one of the most important topics in human history right now. One of the first real global stories which could only be solved with a global perspective and global acting. As Copenhagen in the opinion of many failed, many are frustrated and even more think they could not change anything, when political leaders are not able to face a problem like that. But are we really aware of what will come with climate change, how our lifes will change?

The first question coming out of this is how is climate change covered in the media? And why is it maybe not working to reach an audience that starts to really believe that it is time to change something? I mean, millions came to see Obama becoming a president, but only 50.000 came to protest in Copenhagen. Just a thought.

In my opinion the biggest step to make people understand and care about Climate Change is to make it personal, not only personal in showing some devasting pictures from people in the floods in Bangladesh or the droughts in Eastern Africa. It has to touch us in a way that we understand that this problem, even when we don’t see it right now, will affect each one of us, in each society, each culture and each person. We have to get close and personal to the stories that even today are affecting people around the globe. We have to get personal accounts, people telling their stories, showing their lifes, not only some abstract data of how the world will change. Before that gets to sound too activism-like, let’s have a look at some interesting projects that cover climate change right now and tried to create awarness for it.

NOOR: Consequences

The photoagency NOOR sent out nine photographers to cover different stories from the ‘frontiers of climate change’. Being first of all photographers, they came back with great images, being interviewed afterwards for the production of soundslides about their journeys. The most of the shortfilms though show more how we destroy the world than the changes and how it affects the people. Maybe i’m wrong and that is still needed, but in my mind we are further. It is clear what destroys the earth, we should maybe more focus on how it affects us. What makes the reporting about some oil factories in Siberia interesting to us? It is far away, we can’t change that (also because it is another example we feel helpless about) and we don’t even know who really has to suffer about it beside some shepards in a region we never heart of before. When we wanna start to cover stories in a way that it brings attention and not only great images, nicely shown in exhibitions around the climate conference, we have to do more. It is important to cover those stories, no doubt about that, but when we really wanna get people thinking about it we have to do more in my opinion. I watched the videos and came out with nothing personal for me, nothing what would make me start really thinking about it, beside feeling some pity for people in this regions and some feelings of how stupid human beings could be. But nothing what directly affected me, would made me think of acting in any way. I just couldn’t relate enough to what was shown. Maybe the voices of the people, some video sequences would have changed something for me, maybe that would have made it less abstract, less far away. But don’t get me wrong, the project is great and for sure a big step in the right direction. It could just be way more powerful in my opinion with some easy additions.

Climate Change Documentary

Another great project by danish photojournalist Jakob Dall, also finished for the COP 15. He travelled also around the world, taking pictures of different places that are affected by climate change. Interesting is that it is not only covering the for us exotic places, but also places like Denmark or Ireland. Problem again: These are ‘just’ pictures, great in any way, moving, touching, but my concerns are kind of the same as with the NOOR project. It is hard to relate to it, plus it is also focusing on crisis and special events. The questions i asked myself when i saw the pictures: This that happening often? Is that really an effect of climate change? Even when that is not easy to answer, also here the voices of the people who tell how it changed in the last years and so on, could make it more powerful. Don’t forget, this stories are produced big for the web! So a good use of multimedia should be an easy step. Anyway, i think that what Jabob did in many ways is the right thing, go to the places, show how it looks like, get close, get personal.

Faces of climate change

This project is great. I don’t wanna talk to much about my concerns as it is kind of the same as in the ones before: Not personal enough, not bringing it close enough to me. In this project it is even that it sometimes feels like art, how they relate pictures with text, with pictures in a studio-like way. The pictures are great, but maybe for really getting touched we want something what feels real and not like out of a studio. We want to see the lifes and not only fancy portraits. In the moment i give it a more artificial look i take it away from reality and that is what we wanna show, right? But on the other hand this project is powerful in many ways. It covers the problem of climate change worldwide, from the farmer in Italy to the people in Siberia. It has of all projects the most global approach. And to see in the faces, see the people that are affected is nothing but powerful. Only, it could easily more powerful…

Bangladesh

Another photojournalist from Denmark, Jonathan Bjerg Møller, made some great stories from Bangaldesh, the country what is maybe right now the biggest affected by climate change. His stories are powerful, close and even when as always it could be more powerful, the story works. The use of b/w is maybe doing it’s work with it’s never forgotten relation of crisis and b/w. I would have liked to know how the stories would have worked in colour, but this is just a personal opinion.

To bring all that critique together at the end: Climate Change is such a big story, but with the internet we could do this stories better, more close, more personal with bigger impacts on the people who see this stories. Get the stories told by the people, show their lifes, how they have to cope with it, but also how it looks like on a daily basis might be a start. Making us relate to the problem and doing that in the most powerful way should be the main idea and starting point behind every project covering climate change for the media. How else should we start caring for it?