How to Cite:

Boora, S., Karakunnel, M. T., & Savarimuthu, X. (2022). Environmental communication

research. International Journal of Health Sciences, 6(S5), 11453–11468.
[Link]

Environmental communication research:

Need for an action-centric paradigm

Shailendra Boora
Dept of Media Studies, CHRIST University, 0000-0003-3023-6340
Corresponding author email: bjshailu@[Link]

Meljo Thomas Karakunnel

CHRIST University, 0000-0002-8373-3255,
Email: [Link]@[Link]

Xavier Savarimuthu
St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), 0000-0002-6563-8502,
Email: sxavi2005@[Link]

Abstract---Climate change and its anticipated dangers have become

imminent and face us repeatedly while the philosophy of infinite
economic growth and technological triumphalism is promoting a
complicit approach towards environmental issues. In the light of this
environmental communication (EC), research needs to promote a
broader message which would include larger public awareness and
engagement. But the EC research is found to be mere academic and
media-centric. Given the urgency and complexity of environmental
issues, this article presents an overview of the need for a praxis of EC
research that is broader and action-centric from social, political and
economic perspectives, safeguarding human rights and climate justice
and promoting local community actions and comprehensive
sustainable living.

Keywords---Environmental communication, context of environmental

crises, displacements & migration, human rights, climate justice,
social change, sustainability, public education, action-centric
paradigm.

1. Introduction

Human economic activity, seemingly an endless endeavor, has reached a

maximum level of tolerance with potential potential consequences of extreme
weather, rising sea levels, depleting Arctic ice, melting of glaciers, etc that are
evident in our daily living. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC],

International Journal of Health Sciences ISSN 2550-6978 E-ISSN 2550-696X © 2022.

Manuscript submitted: 9 March 2022, Manuscript revised: 18 May 2022, Accepted for publication: 27 June 2022
11453
11454

2018). But due to lack of public informedness and personal efficacy to respond to
these issues many countries have formulated environmental policies to cut
anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which affect the environment. To
promote sustainable environmental behavior, people can be made aware of these
policies through public communication channels such as newspapers, television,
websites, social media and campaigns. But these efforts are dwarfed by the
onslaught of climate change denial lobbies, polarized public opinion and political
action. The public understanding of the environment is largely based on the
images and paradigms from the polarized and politicized public discourses which
are superficial and fragmented far from scientific findings through disinformation
machines. So, there is a need for an act of persuasive public messaging,
proliferating the facts about the destabilized environment, human costs and the
solutions to be followed across the groups (Mann, 2009, 2021).

2. Environmental Communication

The impact of environmental issues and the need to inform and discuss these
issues have initiated an environmental communication (EC) which became a
dedicated discipline over the years. The term environment has evolved as ‘a
recognition of pervasive interdependencies, in which everything is connected to
everything else’ (Schoenfeld, 1983, p. 471). Accordingly, EC communicates the
‘intersections and connections’, that is, communication which human beings and
their institutions maintain with the natural environment (Carson, 2002; Lie &
Servaes, 2015). EC brings in socio-political aspects of the environment which are
aimed at public discourse (Hansen, 2018) to bring social change through
environmental education (Lie & Servaes, 2015).

Multiple studies have shown that media attention to environmental problems has
rapidly expanded across various countries in the last 10–15 years (Schäfer et al.,
2013). Several external factors have influenced the rapid attention of the media.
Liu et al. (2011) categorize these factors as follows:
1. First as ‘short-term weather conditions’ such as floods, heatwaves and
cyclones
2. Second as ‘focusing events’, in other words, ‘high-profile international
events’ that ‘push concern above the noise threshold of other issues’ (Liu et
al., 2011, p. 406)
3. Third as ‘feedback’ which refers to ‘communications of stakeholders and
pressure groups on societal matters’ (Schäfer et al., 2013, p. 155).

These categories of factors, in a way, pulled the attention of the media and the
resulting public discourse. Though there were fluctuations in media attention on
environmental issues annually, a rising trend was evident. Since the introduction
of environmental studies in the 1960s, ‘the environment has remained firmly
established on the media and public agenda’ (Hansen, 2018).

3. Environmental Communication (EC) Research

While in the 1960s and 1970s, the subject of the research was concentrated on
the emergence of environmental journalism, in the 1980s it focused on risk
communication that studied media and its coverage of disasters, environmental
 11455

crises and nuclear power. In the 1990s, the field of research got consolidated
through a diverse research area which was themed around media and
environment published in dedicated journal editions, edited books and
monographs (Corner & Schlesinger, 1991). From generalized research around
pollution, disasters, resource depletion, controversies and nuclear power in the
earlier phase, focused research on global warming and climate change emerged in
the later phase. After the year 2000, with a consistent growth in publications,
communication processes by public media—drawing the public’s attention to the
environmental problems—and a growing number of academic curricula, it became
a definitive academic discipline leading to the establishment of the Environmental
Communication Association 2011 (Hansen, 2017; Moser, 2016). Initially, the
research was on conventional news media and their coverage and framing of
environmental issues. With the arrival of digital communication technologies, it
facilitated the non-linear communication process: from the study of
interrelationships between various processes, institutional involvements and
systemic impacts, the research became more diverse and broader with a mix of
theoretical and disciplinary traditions ranging from the domains of science and
technology to the fields of all social sciences and the disciplines of business and
management studies (Cox, 2016; Hansen, 2018). The present EC research has
gone beyond the study of conventional news media to other media such as
movies, short films, cartoons, advertisements, theatre, pamphlets, public
campaigns, Internet and social media apps.

3.1 Limits of EC Research

EC research needs to be enquired: ‘[I]s environmental communication research

returning something of value to society? Is it interdisciplinary enough?’ (Brevini,
2016, p. 685). The EC research is found to be limited and narrow for mostly
studying the conventional media and being merely academic in its orientation.
Comfort and Park (2018) pointed out that EC research is mostly about
journalistic practices and public perception of climate change and global warming
in print and television media. This media-centrism has limited the scholars to
study only the isolated behaviors and media texts, without analyzing the
interrelationship between environment, political processes and economic systems,
and systemic and institutional impacts (Comfort & Park, 2018; Cox, 2016). These
studies were not done from the perspective of an environmental victim: ‘it seems
clear that the field is not speaking much for the people most affected by
environmental issues’ (Comfort & Park, 2018, p. 873). In this context, EC
research needs to be inclusive and pedagogical by placing the research in the
context of socio-political and economic processes and their impact on the
environment and people (Brevini, 2016). The environment is not just a science,
but it is a political and economic issue (The Choice—MSNBC, 2022).

PART I: Context

4. Environmental Communication: Socio-Political and Economic

Perspectives

The environmental crisis intersects with social, economic and political conflicts
(Sridhar, 2010). Hence, EC actually had its origin as a socio-economic, political
11456

discourse. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, published in 1962, was the first effort
prompting public discourse and policy changes. The concerns of fatal usage of
toxic chemicals and pesticides and their consequent adverse environmental
impacts urged her to caution the public about ‘biocides’. Silent Spring was a
deliberate ‘product of her unrest’ to ‘disturb and disrupt’ the wisdom of
establishments advocating against the usage of toxic chemicals (Linda, 2002)
from a socio-economic, political perspective. While Silent Spring was the first
publication that spurred the public discussion on ecological crises, there were
other prior publications, Walden and A Sand County Almanac written by Henry
David Thoreau (1971) and Aldo Leopold (1970), respectively, that were descriptive
of imagery and harmony in nature from the perspective of social, ethical and
ecological principles.

In the 1970s, some publications such as The Entropy Law and the Economic
Process (Georgescu-Roegen, 1971), Limits to Growth (Meadows et al., 1972) and
Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (Schumacher, 1973) had
raised concerns over the depletion of natural resources and pollution of the
environment and challenged the illusion of economic development and
technological advancement that are responsible for such concerns. These books
show a relationship between economic development and the natural environment
that has been neglected by the economic models. These publications
reconstructed economic development, prioritizing the finiteness of the
environment to be at its core (Levallois, 2010) which needs to be seen as stocks to
be preserved (Ayres & Kneese, 1969; Levallois, 2010). These early publications
popularized the countercultural concepts of sustainable development in the media
and public. According to the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA),
the frequency of the usage of the words sustainable/sustainability has increased
from 12.81 per cent in 1990–1994 to 35.91 per cent in 2010–2012, across the
corpus of spoken, fiction, magazine, newspaper and academic texts (Goshylyk,
2017).

In recent times, Pope Francis’ Laudato Si (2015) was the most influential work for
‘caring for our common home’ which was issued a few months before the
commencement of the Paris Climate Summit. The encyclical, addressing the
global audience, framed the climate crises from a moral position, linking the
climate crises and global economic inequality (Landrum & Vasquez, 2020). The
encyclical aimed at the environmental discourse across politicians, economic
organizations, religious leaders, intellectuals, academicians and the common
public. These publications, besides giving a foundation to the economic–
environmental discourse, had drawn the media attention and the research on the
communication of environmental issues and the perspectives.

5. Anthropocentrism and Environment

Over the last few centuries, the physical environment of the earth has been
degenerating and is turning to be hazardous for living organisms to live and
sustain. With the arrival of industrialization in the eighteenth century, the human
demand for new energy sources initiated the deterioration of the environment.
The rate of per capita energy consumption per day is hiked to a quarter-million
calories from a mere 26,000 calories in 1000 CE to 77,000 calories consumption
 11457

in 1850 (Bentley, 2013). In the twentieth century, heavy industrialization and

industrialized agriculture brought large chunks of land to cultivation by
expanding into marginal lands, wetlands and forest lands, heavily relying on
pollution-bound chemical fertilizers and pesticides (Bentley, 2013). Through the
dictatorial approach of industrious humans, nature was ‘beaten into submission’
with an ‘almost divine wisdom’.

6. Economic Development and Environment

Economic progress is directly responsible for environmental degradation. Though

the economic progress helped in the rise of literacy rate, fall in infant mortality
rate, rise in life expectancy of humans and increase in food production, the health
of the environment has deteriorated as the economic progress failed to recognize
the natural environment as an integral part of the development process. The
higher industrial production and infrastructural development increased income
generation, thereby creating demand for housing, demand for transport, usage of
cars and planes, and demand for electricity resulting in carbon emissions and
environmental damages (PwC, 2017). Since the 1970s, the deterioration has
become more swift and severe, as private entrepreneurial culture was unleashed
by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: it left the economies to the private
sector and forced the developing nations such as China, India and others to open
their economies to global markets with minimal government regulations (Chancel
et al., 2021). With every decade, the invasive industrial activity, industrial
technologies and energy-intensive infrastructures are putting pressure on the
earth’s resources, resulting in the depletion of minerals, shrinking of water
sources, massive pollution, waning of forests and global warming.

6.1 Depletion of Resources

During the period 1971–2017, the global extraction of raw materials more than
tripled, that is, an increase from 27.1 billion tons to 92.1 billion tons at an
average increase of 2.6 per cent annually. It needs to be noted that while the
average annual extraction rate increase between 1970 and 2000 was 2.3 per cent,
between 2000 and 2017, —during the period of information technology—that has
been promoted as less intensive on extraction of natural resources—the average
annual extraction rate increased to 3.2 per cent (Oberle et al., 2019). This clearly
indicates that there cannot be ‘technological’ solutions to save the environment.
To do so, we need to consume fewer natural resources and preserve them.
Presently, the exploitation of global natural resources is such that if the entire
history is compared to a calendar year, modern human life will have existed for 37
minutes, and we will have used one-third of the Earth’s natural resources in the
last 0.2 seconds. The rate at which human consumption is increasing, we would
require 1.79 planet earths to provide resources and absorb the waste (The World
Counts, 2021). From 92.1 billion tons of annual global extraction of natural
resources in 2017, is expected to double up around 190 billion tons by 2060
(Global Footprint Network, 2021; Oberle et al., 2019).
11458

6.2 Emissions and Solid Waste

The carbon emissions have increased after the 1990s, around which most of the
countries have become corporate-controlled globalized economies. Since the
beginning of the industrialization, the carbon emissions were recorded as 1 billion
tons in 1850, 11 billion tons in 1950, 35 billion tons in 2000 and 50 billion tons
in 2019 (Figure 1). Of the total historical emissions since the year 1850, 46 per
cent of the emissions are from the year 1990 (Chancel, 2021), the year around
which many developing countries became globalized economies.

Figure 1. Global Annual CO2 Emissions by World Regions, 1850–2019

Source: Chancel (2021)

According to Olivier & Peters, (2020) the total global GHG emissions (carbon
dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and F-gases) increased to 57.4 gigatons of CO2 in
2019 from about 37 gigatons of CO2 in 1990. Of these total GHG emissions,
around 76 per cent is emitted from the energy-related sectors (Climate Watch,
2021). Besides GHG emissions, in 2016 the municipal solid waste of about 2.1
billion tons is generated from the extraction and consumption of resources
(Ghosh et al., 2020); this was about 635 million tons in 1965, and which is
expected to rise to 3.5 billion tons by the year 2050 (Chen et al., 2020; World
Bank, 2021). In 2016, solid waste disposal and treatment were estimated to 1.6
billion tons of CO2 equivalent of GHG emissions, that is, 5 per cent of global
emissions (World Bank, 2021). Municipal solid waste will have a serious impact
on the environment affecting the health and livelihoods of the people.

6.3 Economic Inequality and Environment

The last two centuries of economic progress has widened the inequality between
the haves and have-nots. While a few indulge in wealthy, healthy and happy lives,
a large number suffers from living in poverty. According to the ‘World Inequality
Report 2022’ (Table 1), the top 10 per cent captures 52 per cent of the global
 11459

income and owns 76 per cent of the global wealth, the bottom 50 per cent gets
only 8.5 per cent of the global income and owns only 2 per cent of the global
wealth (Chancel et al., 2021). The economic inequality and concentration of
wealth have ecological implications, as a few rich would have undue control over
natural resources.

Table 1. Global Economic Inequality

Percentage of Global Percentage of Global Percentage of Global

Population Income Wealth
Top10% 52% 76%
Bottom 50% 8.5% 2%
Source: Chancel et al. (2021).

Chancel et al. (2021) report that the top 1 per cent and 10 per cent of global rich
produce 17 per cent and 48 per cent of the global emissions, respectively, totaling
65 per cent of the global emissions, while the poorest 50 per cent produce only 12
per cent of the global emissions (Table 2).

Table 2. Global Economic Inequality and Global Emissions

Percentage of Global Population Percentage of Global Emissions

Top 1% 17%
Next top 10% 48%
Bottom 50% 12%
Source: Chancel et al. (2021).

It is also observed that even in rich countries, the per capita emissions are
marginally low for the poor, contrary to the creamy rich; similarly, in middle-
income and poor countries, the per capita emissions from the top rich are very
high, contrary to the poor. So, whichever may be the country, it is the rich who
are responsible for high emissions, and action needs to be taken to cut the
emissions of the wealthy (Chancel et al., 2021).

While the trends of the GHG emissions are increasing in growing economies, in
the richer countries there are signs of a decrease in the GHG emissions because
the manufacturing units of rich countries have been shifted to growing economies
and middle-income countries. In a way, the rich countries have only shifted the
location of their emissions, but they are still responsible for the huge chunk of
global emissions. The large gap of emissions between the rich and poor should
target rich polluters more. Some of the policies have disproportionately impacted
the poor, leaving the rich and their habits unchanged. The presented data
indicate that unregulated markets and growing economic activities result in
environmental deterioration.

6.4 The Rise in Temperatures

The anthropogenic emissions are altering the earth’s energy balance of incoming
and outgoing radiation by interfering with the climate system, thereby resulting in
11460

rise in temperatures. Since 1880, of the 10 warmest years, 9 occurred after 2000
and 5 of them occurred after 2015. The year 2018 recorded the warmest year,
followed by 2019, the second warmest year (Olivier & Peters, 2020). The global
temperature has increased by 1.18°C between 1880 and 2020. The global
temperatures are projected to increase by 4.1°C to 4.8°C by the year 2100 at the
current rate of emissions without implementation of any climate policies. It would
increase by 2.8°C to 3.2°C with the present implemented policies.

6.5 Natural’ Calamities

The changes in climate change result in increasing the average surface

temperatures and changes in the pattern of rainfall, wind, melting glaciers and ice
caps, rising sea levels and tropical cyclones (Mann, 2009). These calamities,
usually perceived as ‘natural’, are actually the products of human activities
modifying the natural systems for rapid urbanization and economic globalization,
resulting in environmental degradation (Guha-Sapir & Vos, 2011). These would
affect ecosystems and human life, that is, extinction of animal species and plants,
loss of food production, droughts, loss of coastlines, wetlands, flooding and
spreading of infectious diseases (Mann, 2009). The recent Tonga volcanic
explosion on 14 and 15 January 2022 is a clear sign of the humanity being
surrounded by the reality of dangers from climate change.

6.6 Environmental Crisis and Migration

The environmental crisis mostly affects the poor and the downtrodden as ‘many of
the poor live in areas particularly affected by phenomena related to warming, and
their means of subsistence are largely dependent on natural reserves and eco-
systemic services such as agriculture, fishing and forestry’ (Francis, 2015). The
protests against the various developmental projects reveal that it is the
marginalized who are most affected.

The consequences from energy production, deforestation, extraction of resources

and rapid industrialization affect the well-being and quality of the lives of the poor
(Lie & Servaes, 2015), resulting in environmental migration. Those forced to leave
their homelands, either immediately or eventually, because of the adverse
changes in their environment due to toxic emissions, depletion of resources and
natural disasters are called environmental migrants. Events such as floods,
landslides, earthquakes, volcanoes, extreme temperatures, storms, droughts,
forest fires, industrial accidents, pollution, rise in sea level, coastal erosion,
salinization, change in rainfall patterns, melting of glaciers, land degradation,
deforestation, dams, roads and mining are directly or indirectly responsible for
the migration (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005).

The prediction of the constant occurrence of these events in the twenty-first

century would displace large chunks of people (IPCC, 2014). According to an
assessment, ‘Costs of Inaction: Displacement and Distress Migration’, even with
the existing mitigation, 37.4 million people and 62.9 million people will be
displaced by 2030 and 2050, respectively, in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka (Singh et al., 2020). According to another estimate done for the
World Bank projects, 143 million people will be internally displaced by 2050 in
 11461

sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin American regions According to Global
Report on Internal Displacement (2021), between 2008 and 2020, 318.3 million
were displaced because of disasters alone. The numbers present only partial data,
as the cross-border displacements, displacements from slow onset of disasters
and small-scale disasters are underreported or omitted. This available limited
data on displacement makes it obvious that it is the poor and the vulnerable from
the poor countries who are most affected, and it calls for a ‘poor’- centered
environmental discourses.

6.7 Environment Crisis and Denial of Human Rights

The environmental crisis is threatening the human rights along with the rights of
non-humans and the inanimate, which also have the right to exist. With the
growing incidents and environmental violations, humans, non-humans and
inanimate are being denied of a basic right (human right)—the right to live—due
to visible immediate damages or invisible eventual damages in the form of
emissions, industrial activities, industrial accidents, mining activities, irrigation
projects and other developmental projects.

Accordingly, the environmental crises and violations need to be addressed from

the perspective of human rights and justice for mutual protection as ‘human
rights depend on environmental protection and environmental protection depends
on human rights’ (Spieler, 2010, p. 19). This relationship is understood in three
ways: (a) environmental protection as a precondition for promotion of human
rights; (b) environmental protection as a human right itself; and (c) environmental
protection as a result of promotion of human rights (Spieler, 2010).

As a result of negotiations by several international bodies, presently there are

about 1,500 climate laws and policies globally (Nachmany & Setzer, 2018). But as
some of the corporations are bigger and richer than the governments, the efficacy
of these legislations and the legitimacy of human rights are challenged and the
recourse to claim justice by the victims is being made hard. It also needs to be
observed that while the visible polluters are held responsible for environmental
crises, financial institutions such as banks, investors and insurance companies
which actually finance these polluters are not pulled to courts, though they are
also responsible for major carbon.

Part II: Action

7. Sustainable Development

In the present context of unregulated economic progress resulting in the

deterioration of the environment, the solution to protect the environment cannot
be technological advancements. The environment can be protected only if the
economic growth is decoupled from the extraction of resources and there is
reduction in consumption—in a way cutting down the human economic activity.
While economic progress is necessary, it is of utmost importance to promote ‘the
security, well-being and very survival of the planet’ (World Commission on
Environment and Development [WCED], 1987, p. 23). Brundtland Commission
Report, 1987, calls for an alternative strategy for development, that is,
11462

sustainable development that meets the essential needs of the poor without
compromising with the ability to meet the essential needs of the future
generations and the consumption standards that have regards for the long-term
sustainability (WCED, 1987). Keeping in mind the magnitude of unending
anthropocentric stress on the environment, there needs to be a gradual stress
from the model of ‘conservation’ to the model ‘preservation’. The ‘conservation’ is
still an anthropocentric idea as the future needs of humans is central, therefore
retaining human supremacy. On the contrary, the idea of ‘preservation’ is about
protecting the environment and recognizing its intrinsic value which is central
and which we humans depend on for our basic living needs. There had been a
body of eco-centric traditions in indigenous groups that guided their existence So,
a shift from anthropocentric ‘conservation’ to eco-centric ‘preservation’ is
required.

In 2015, the General Assembly of UN, highlighting the need for sustainable
development, drew a blueprint of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): to
end poverty and hunger; provide good health, education, gender equality,
affordable clean energy; conserve life below water and life on earth; promote
climate justice; reduce inequalities; climate action—these are interlinked and are
aimed to be achieved by 2030 (UNDP, 2015).

8. Need for Public Education & Engagement

It is in this perilous situation and the need for sustainable development that the
people are to be educated and engaged in environmental action. Media through its
representation of problems and risks related to the environment constructs
dispositions of ‘action or inaction’ to engage with the politics of climate change.
Media has played a key role in enhancing the political engagement of citizens with
the issues of the environment (Carvalho, 2010). However, there is not enough
citizen engagement with environmental issues.

According to a study by the Yale Program of Climate Change Communication

(Leiserowitz et al., 2021), while 50 per cent of the Americans are either ‘extremely’
or ‘very’ sure of global warming, only 10 per cent of the Americans believe ‘a great’
(3 per cent) or ‘a lot’ (7 per cent) of a deal to take action to reduce global warming.
This wide gap between the belief in global warming and the need to take action
could be understood as a limitation from the way mainstream media framed the
issues of environmental crisis. Mainstream media through the framing of ‘high-
profile intergovernmental meetings and excessive representation of international
politics tends to promote the notion that ‘global’ is the space of action to mitigate
climate change (Carvalho, 2010), rather than the local initiatives. Studies on
Swedish media (Olausson, 2009) and Japanese media (Sampei & Aoyagi-Usui,
2009) also analyzed that the environmental reportage peaked coinciding with the
convening of international summits, presenting a ‘transnational’ responsibility.

8.1 Local Engagement

International political summits are important for the management of climate

change. But it is the national, local issues and events that are the right platforms
to prompt awareness into action. The perception of climate change as a ‘global
 11463

political problem’, rather than a localized issue, would make local deliberations
and actions by citizens insignificant. In a globalized world, the diffusion of global
information is at a global scale. But this global information is always
‘appropriated’ by individuals who are located at a ‘specific spatial-temporal locale’
with a ‘particular socio-historical context’ of their everyday life (Lie & Servaes,
2015). So, the media needs to frame global climate events in localized contexts.
Though climate change is a global issue, it is the result of local acts of
exploitation. For a critical engagement, locally in the global politics of
environment and governance, first, the citizens are helped to recognize the
problems, constraints and the need for involvement. There needs to be a strategic
use of media to promote behavioral changes and local participation which would
further promote the communicative behavior of information seeking, information
sharing, information forwarding and problem-solving (Jiang et al., 2019).

8.2 Networking

For efficient mobilization of the public to address the issues, there have to be
processes and actions based on a multistakeholder approach to influence
policymaking and to cultivate green behavior. The crisis of the environment is
dynamic with social, political, economic and cultural impacts, cutting across
geographies and times. So, there is need for shared responsibilities and collective
efforts (Pacific Islands Forums, 2005) by public, civil societies, academicians,
health practitioners, climate scientists, climate activists, legal practitioners and
policymakers through building networks of sharing knowledge and dialogues (Lie
& Servaes, 2015).

8.3 Ideological Shift

To achieve sustainable behavior and sustainable development, what is required is

not just scientific knowledge about climate change but a change in ethical and
moral perspectives, attitudes and a shift in political ideology that would promote
welfare economics (Landrum & Vasquez, 2020). For many people, as scientific
facts could be ideologically inconvenient, the truth is brushed away on political
and economic interests and the needed action is opposed (Mann, 2021). The
political–economic ideological shift from unregulated usage of resources and
consumption would regulate the free-market economy that is responsible for the
present environmental crisis. The shift in ethical and moral perspectives would
promote environmental behavior of self-restraint on unregulated usage of
resources and would help reduce consumption at individual levels, as
consumption is central to environmental degradation and climate change.

9. Way forward for EC Research

From the discussed context of impending impacts from environmental dangers

evident from the recent volcanic eruption at Tonga, there has to be a scale and
speed of communication practices to elicit actions in cutting down the carbon
footprint. To promote sustainable development through a political will and
widespread public engagement, EC research needs to integrate the issues of the
environment as interconnected consequences of social, political, economic and
cultural decisions and actions by the governments and people as against isolated
11464

incidents. To stop the dramatic climatic changes, EC research needs to counter

the mainstream narrative of technological triumphalism and technological fixes
that negate the need for ultimate changes in lifestyle, economy and politics and
impel climate investigation into a daily media political coverage (The Choice—
MSNBC, 2022).

Although the effects of climate change are global, the issues of the environment
need to be studied as the issues of the poor and underprivileged as they are the
first and most affected; this calls for study of these issue from the perspective of
human rights and climate justice. As the issues of the environment are local in
origin and mostly the local communities are affected, the communication needs to
be local-centric through participative local media, besides being national and
global through mass media. Parallel to the importance of institutional and policy
changes, the behavioral changes at community and individual levels to promote
concrete environmental actions and alter consumption patterns should be
encouraged. Hence, EC research needs to engage with questions of inequalities in
sharing resources and power (Brevini, 2016) and needs to shift from publication-
centrism to public actions engaging in advocacy to transform society (Gardner &
Wordley, 2019).

Author contributions: Shailendra Boora has conceptualised the paper and

authored the paper. Meljo Thomas Karakunnel and Xavier Savarimuth, had given
inputs on communication and environment and worked on the final draft.

Funding: It’s not funded

Declarations: Working on this paper, there are no conflicts of interest.

References

Andayani, R. H. R., Luhpuri, D., Hakim, M. Z., & Fahrudin, A. (2022). Digital
therapy in rehabilitation service for mental health patients during COVID-19
pandemic: Opportunity and challenges. International Journal of Health
Sciences, 6(2), 1001–1012. [Link]
Ayres, R. U., & Kneese, A. V. (1969). Production, consumption, and externalities.
American Economic Review, 59(3), 282–297.
Bentley, J. H. (2013). Environmental crises in world history. Procedia: Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 77, 108–115.
[Link]
Brevini, B. (2016). The value of environmental communication research.
International Communication Gazette, 78(7), 684–687.
[Link]
Carson, R. (2002). Silent spring. Mariner Books.
Carvalho, A. (2010). Media (ted) discourses and climate change: A focus on
political subjectivity and (dis) engagement. WIREs Climate Change, 1(2), 172–
179. [Link]
Chancel, L. (2021). Climate change and the global inequality of carbon emissions
1990–2020. World Inequality Lab.
Chancel, L., Piketty, T., Saez, E., & Zucman, G. (2021). World inequality (Report).
World Inequality Lab.
 11465

Chen, D. M. C., Bodirsky, B. L., Krueger, T., Mishra, A., & Popp, A. (2020). The
world’s growing municipal solid waste: Trends and impacts. Environmental
Research Letters, 15(7), 074021. [Link]
Climate Watch. (2021). Global historical emissions. Retrieved December 18, 2021,
from [Link]
emissions?breakBy=sector&chartType=percentage&end_year=2018&source=C
AIT&start_year=1990
Comfort, S. E., & Park, Y. E. (2018). On the field of environmental
communication: A systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature.
Environmental Communication, 12(7), 862–875.
[Link]
Corner, J., & Schlesinger, P. (1991). Editorial: Covering the environment. Media,
Culture and Society, 13, 435-441.
Cox, R., & Pezzullo, P. C. (2016). Environmental communication and the public
sphere (4th ed). SAGE Publications.
Francis, P. (2015). Laudato si. Vatican City: Vatican Press.
Gardner, C. J., & Wordley, C. F. R. (2019). Scientists must act on our own
warnings to humanity. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 3(9), 1271–1272.
[Link]
Georgescu-Roegen, N. (1971). The entropy law and the economic process. Harvard
University Press.
Ghosh, P., Shah, G., Sahota, S., Singh, L., & Vijay, V. K. (2020). Biogas
production from waste: Technical overview, progress, and challenges.
Bioreactors, 89-104.
Global Footprint Network. (2021). Country trends. Retrieved December 15, 2021,
from
[Link]
5-610459776.1639984805#/countryTrends?cn=5001&type=earth
Global Report on Internal Displacement (2021). Retrieved December 05, 2021,
from h[Link]
[Link]/sites/default/files/publications/documents/grid2021_idmc.
pdf
Gorda, A. A. N. O. S., & Anggreswari, N. P. Y. (2018). The implementation of
participatory communication development: Bali Mandara program.
International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2(2), 265–278.
[Link]
Goshylyk, N. (2017). 'Small is beautiful’ in English mass media texts on
sustainable development. AAA: Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik,
42(1), 141–158.
Hansen, A. (2017). Media representation: Environment. In P. Rössler, C. A.
Hoffner, & L. van Zoonen (Eds.), The international encyclopaedia of media
effects (pp. 1–12). John Wiley & Sons.
Hansen, A. (2018). Environmental communication. In R. L. Heath & W. Johansen
(Eds.), The international encyclopaedia of strategic communication (pp. 1–10).
Wiley. [Link]
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2014). Synthesis report:
Climate change 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2021, from
[Link] IPCC, Ar.5
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2018). Summary for
policymakers. In V. Masson-Delmotte (Ed.), Global warming of 1.5°C: An IPCC
11466

special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial

levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of
strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable
development, and efforts to eradicate poverty. World Meteorological
Organization.
Jiang, H., Kim, J. N., Liu, B., & Luo, Y. (2019). The impact of perceptual and
situational factors on environmental communication: A study of citizen
engagement in China. Environmental Communication, 13(5), 582–602.
[Link]
Landrum, A. R., & Vasquez, R. (2020). Polarized US publics, Pope Francis, and
climate change: Reviewing the studies and data collected around the 2015
Papal Encyclical. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 11(6), e674.
Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., Rosenthal, S., Kotcher, C., J., Wang, X., Goldberg,
M., Lacroix, K., & Marlon, J. (2021). Climate change in the American mind:
December 2020. Yale University Press and George Mason University: Yale
Program on Climate Change Communication.
Leopold, A. (1970). A sand county almanac. Ballantine. (Original work published
1949)
Levallois, C. (2010). Can de-growth be considered a policy option? A historical
note on Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and the Club of Rome. Ecological
Economics, 69(11), 2271–2278.
[Link]
Lie, R., & Servaes, J. (2015). Disciplines in the field of communication for
development and social change. Communication Theory, 25(2), 244–258.
[Link]
Linda, L. (2002). Introduction. In R. Carson (Ed.), Silent spring. Mariner Books.
Liu, X., Lindquist, E., & Vedlitz, A. (2011). Explaining media and congressional
attention to Global Climate Change, 1969-2005: An empirical test of agenda-
setting theory. Political Research Quarterly, 64(2), 405–419.
[Link]
Mann, M. E. (2009). Do global warming and climate change represent a serious
threat to our welfare and environment? Social Philosophy and Policy, 26(2),
193–230. [Link]
Mann, M. E. (2021). Global destruction isn’t funny, but when it comes to the
climate crisis, it might have to be. Boston Globe. Retrieved December 22, 2021,
from [Link]
isnt-funny-when-it-comes-climate-crisis-it-might-have-be/
Meadows, D. H., Randers, J., & Meadows, D. L. (1972). The limits to growth.
Universe Books.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. (2005). Ecosystems and human well-being:
Synthesis. Island Press.
Moser, S. C. (2016). Reflections on climate change communication research and
practice in the second decade of the 21st century: What more is there to say?
WIREs Climate Change, 7(3), 345–369. [Link]
Nachmany, M., & Setzer, J. (2018). Policy brief global trends in climate change
legislation and litigation: 2018 snapshot. Grantham Research Institute on
Climate Change and the Environment.
Oberle, B., Bringezu, S., Hatfield-Dodds, S., Hellweg, S., Schandl, H., & Clement,
J. (2019). Global resources outlook: 2019. International Resource Panel,
United Nations Environment Program.
 11467

Olausson, U. (2009). Global warming: Global responsibility? Media frames of

collective action and scientific certainty. Public Understanding of Science,
18(4), 421–436. [Link]
Olivier, J. G., & Peters, J. A. H. W. (2020). Trends in global CO2 and total
greenhouse gas emissions. PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment
Agency.
Pacific Islands Forum. (2005). Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate
Change 2006–2015. SPREP.
PwC. (2017, February). The long view: How will the global economic order change
by 2050? The world in 2050. Retrieved November 2021 from
[Link]
[Link]
Sampei, Y., & Aoyagi-Usui, M. (2009). Mass-media coverage, its influence on
public awareness of climate-change issues, and implications for Japan’s
national campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Global Environmental
Change, 19(2), 203–212. [Link]
Schäfer, M. S., Ivanova, A., & Schmidt, A. (2014). What drives media attention for
climate change? explaining issue attention in Australian, German and Indian
Print Media from 1996 to 2010. International Communication Gazette, 76(2),
152–176. [Link]
Schoenfeld, A. C. (1983). The environmental movement as reflected in the
American magazine. Journalism Quarterly, 60(3), 470–475.
[Link]
Schumacher, E. F. (1973). Small is beautiful: A study of economics as if people
mattered. Blond and Briggs.
Setzer, J., & Bangalore, M. (2017). Regulating climate change in the courts. In A.
Averchenkova, S. Fankhauser, & M. Nachmany (Eds.), Trends in climate
change legislation (pp. 175–192). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Singh, H., Faliero, J., Anderson, T., & Vashist, S. (2020, December). Costs of
inaction: Displacement and distress migration. ActionAid. Retrieved November
21, 2021, from
[Link]
20-%20South%20Asia%20Climate%20Migration%20report%20-
%20Dec%202020_3.pdf.
Spieler, P. (2010). The La Oroya case: The relationship between environmental
degradation and human rights violations. Human Rights Brief, 18(1), 4.
Sridhar, V. K. (2010). Political ecology and social movements with reference to
Kudremukh Environment Movement. Social Change, 40(3), 371–385.
[Link]
Suryasa, I. W., Rodríguez-Gámez, M., & Koldoris, T. (2022). Post-pandemic health
and its sustainability: Educational situation. International Journal of Health
Sciences, 6(1), i-v. [Link]
The Choice—MSNBC. (2022). Mehdi Hasan show full broadcast, January 5.
Retrieved January 21, 2022, from
[Link]
The World Counts. (2021). Overuse of earth resources on earth. Retrieved
December 20, 2021, from
[Link]
planet/overuse-of-resources-on-earth/story
11468

Thoreau, H. D. (1971). Walden (J. Lyndon Shanley, Ed.). Princeton UP. (Original
work published 1854)
UN Environmental Program (UNEP). (2019). Five environmentally aware events to
have on your radar. Retrieved December 11, 2021, from
[Link]
events-have-your-radar
United Nations Development Program (UNDP). (2015). Sustainable development
goals. Retrieved December 21, 2021, from [Link]
development-goals
Varma, R. (2003). EF Schumacher: Changing the paradigm of bigger is better.
Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, 23(2), 114–124.
[Link]
Wäger, P. A., Eugster, M., Hilty, L. M., & Som, C. (2005). Smart labels in
municipal solid waste: A case for the Precautionary Principle? Environmental
Impact Assessment Review, 25(5), 567–586.
[Link]
World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Our common
future. Oxford University Press.