Climate Change: Sterling Foundation, Microsoft organizes media workshop

By Muhammad Maitela, Damaturu

The Sterling One Foundation, committed to sustainable development and environmental stewardship, partnered with Microsoft Nigeria, Sterling Bank, The Sun Media, Oando Foundation, Coca Cola and other private sector organizations to launch a transformative capacity-strengthening workshop, with the goal of empowering media to escalate the urgency of the climate change crisis through their reporting.
Mr Akinwale Ojetimi, Chief Executive Officer, Amatropics Newslive, during a virtual National Sustainability Media Training called for the popularisation of climate change desk in newsrooms.
He said that the coverage of climate change was vital, as its consequences could be felt in all areas of societies and economies.
Ojetimi noted that newsrooms should view climate change as more than just a topic but as a systemic issue that affects all desks or verticals.
The Amatropics boss said that as journalists, it was necessary to bring climate change issues much closer home by relating the stories to what was happening in neighborhoods, communities or nearby areas.
“In as much as climate change and sustainable development are global issues, we as journalists should try and ‘localise’ these issues to make them relevant to our immediate environment and enable our own ordinary people to make sense out of it.
“For instance, it is of no use telling a peasant farmer in rural Jigawa in Sahel of stopping fossil fuels in a society that has no significant contribution to greenhouse emissions.
“To make such people understand, talk about desertification and desert encroachment, which is more relatable because they are experiencing heat,” Ojetimi said.