What do Journalists need to write powerful stories about Climate Change?

Summary for the tips: https://infograph.venngage.com/ps/3vtjZFT4v4U/storytelling-in-climate-change

I have been working in the last four years on the topic of climate change. I found that many journalists have been telling people about the effects of climate change, such as the rise of temperatures, chaos in weather patterns, and drought that causes crop failures. Then these stories are used to be followed with the sentences; “we need to take action seriously towards reduction and reversal of global warming” Many articles only showed the problems from climate change with general or wide coverage, such as sea level rise and drought. Telling these stories make people think that “the climate change problem is really big and nothing I may be able to do to solve it”. Some people even think that the problem is exaggerated.

Now I am studying this hottest environmental topic in the best university for environmental science. I found that climate change is a statistical phenomenon that is difficult to be experienced directly, it presents a unique challenge for the human brain. Showing people long-term trends in the average global temperature simply does not carry the same weight in their decisions as the type of strong emotional reactions formed through (negative) experiences. Affective cues—fast and associative judgments of things people like and dislike—are formed through everyday experiences, and they help people make judgments and decisions, especially about risks. People brains are equipped with a biologically hard-wired alarm system that motivates responses to immediate environmental threats. The problem is that because they cannot readily see, hear, or experience the risk of climate change, so their risk warning system is not activated. So, how the journalists can activate it?

PPIW 2.0 : Home (for) initiatives and innovation

It is time to implement the (policy and governance) science or to play people-policy interface.

Menimba ilmu di rantau, memupuk rasa rindu terhadap tanah air. Maka dari itu, kemudian rasa sepenanggungan ini membuat mahasiswa Indonesia di luar negeri berkumpul di bawah 'Perhimpunan Pelajar Indonesia' (PPI). PPI Wageningen berdiri (PPIW) sejak 1987, banyak hal telah dicapai untuk memberikan 'rumah' bagi para perantau pelajar Indonesia, dan juga kontribusi lainnya bagi Indonesia serta komunitas lain di sekitar Wageningen.

Global change membuat fungsi PPIW juga terus bertransformasi, tak hanya sebagai 'paguyuban' Indonesia, tapi juga bisa menjadi hub bagi ide-ide inovasi para mahasiswa Indonesia, untuk menjadi cikal bakal 'think tank' bagi isu strategis di tanah air dan membuka potensi untuk kerjasama internasional (Fig 1). Transformasi ini yang diharapkan menjadi PPIW 2.0.

Figure 1. Integrated programmes

Social innovation for energy transition

Last month, Ignasius Jonan, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources released the statement that Indonesia may not be able to achieve target for the energy mix 2025. He said that existing policies are already more than enough to attract investor, but the problem is competition with traditional fuels which is comparatively cheaper. He also argued that despite the price is lower and the technology is available, the development of renewable energy would still take time. Then what we can do to contribute to the acceleration of the renewable energy transition?
 

Beside economic issues, societal acceptance topic is also important in the renewable energy transition. The energy transition includes macro-level innovations that often consist of a series of technological advancements. This is usually followed by changes in societies, their economic and social domains. Therefore, it requires social innovation. 

Promoting sustainable learning for cacao farmers

Concept of farmers' labs

Many provinces could be turned into major cacao producing areas through an intensification program. However, a sustainable agriculture concept should be adopted so that the intensification program would not harm the environment.

Sustainable practices are applied by some farmer groups in Indonesia. Yet many farmers still use the traditional approach to agriculture, which harms the environment and brings little benefit. Immediately after harvesting, they strive to sell their cacao beans to middlemen in order to get quick money, without considering the sustainable market for their product and enhancing their own income.

The main barrier to pro-environmental and sustainable practices is the personal attitude of the farmers. They do not put much effort into gaining knowledge about the negative impacts of their agricultural practices, which can result in a more vulnerable situation for their livelihood. The mind-set of the farmers makes them act and react based on the experiences of their forefathers, not based on knowledge and science. This value creates perceptions among the farmers that their forefathers who used old farming practices for a long time are more reliable than the knowledge that comes from external actors.