Pakistan’s climate crisis: Victim narrative, media gaps, and the urgent need for real reporting – The Tribune

We’ve heard this a hundred times—climate pros, officials, and activists keep saying it, media repeats it like a machine, but no one actually thinks about it. There’s no time! Between breaking news on politics and who slapped whom, where’s the space for real discussion? So, we just keep hearing: “Pakistan is innocent! Pakistan is suffering!”—and everyone nods like, “yes, absolutely!” But what if someone actually checked the numbers? Maybe we’re not as clean as we claim. Maybe our factories, smoke, trash-burning, and “let it be” attitude are quietly pushing us up the list of climate sinners. But who cares about details? It’s easier to play the victim, repeat the same line, and move on. After all, if everyone’s saying it, it must be true—no questions, no doubts, just blind acceptance.

Who should we thank for the fact that, apart from a few, no one really understands what climate change is and how it’s destroying every part of our lives? Should we thank the people who refuse to take it seriously, even though it’s one of the biggest threats to our survival? Or should we thank the liars who, instead of telling us what’s actually being done to fight it, just confuse us with rankings and numbers? Or maybe we should thank those who blindly report whatever is said without checking if it’s even true?

Of course, the last group is the most responsible—but they’re only giving people what they want to hear: that we are the innocent victims and the developed world is the real villain. But if that’s true, why aren’t they suffering as badly as we are? The truth is, they’ve built strong systems to protect themselves from climate disasters—like a biker wearing full safety gear. Meanwhile, we’re like the pedestrians standing too close to the road, completely exposed to danger.

What a strange field climate change has become—where everyone is part of the problem, but no one can be directly blamed! The government says it’s already dealing with too many crises to focus fully on climate change. Businesses admit they need to go green—but slowly, because profits come first. And the public, who are suffering the most, rightly argues, “When we’re struggling just to survive, how can we worry about planting trees or eco-friendly living?”

Even the media has its excuses. Reporters know climate stories are important, but their bosses won’t push too hard—after all, why risk upsetting the powerful? So, in the end, as always, it’s the ordinary people who pay the price, left clueless about the disaster heading their way.

Many of us must have seen that famous trio-hosted talk show on an Urdu TV channel run by an English media house. One of the anchors—who began his career as an environmental journalist—jokingly said, “We’ve been hearing for the last twenty-five years that some big disaster is coming, but nothing has happened so far.”

What that gentleman forgot is that twenty-five years ago, maybe only 10% of people of Karachi bought bottled water, and that too just for better quality. Today, over 70% have no choice but to rely on even the cheapest bottled water just to meet their basic drinking needs. Isn’t that a water crisis?

Back then, having an AC was a luxury. Now, it’s a necessity—and those who still can’t afford one just suffer through the heat, hoping to buy one next summer. Isn’t that proof of how much hotter things have gotten?

Sure, he’s right that climate change doesn’t give us shocking, on-screen numbers like war coverage does—no bombs, no body counts, no dramatic footage. But who will explain to these learned anchors that this is deadlier than a world war? It destroys not with explosions, but slowly, silently, and without mercy.

This means we’re ignoring the problem like an ostrich hiding its head in the sand. Every day, new stories come out, but the people writing them are sitting far away, safe behind big promises of climate finance. Meanwhile, those stopping more stories from being told have their own excuses. You can’t blame the public—how would they know the truth when the stories they hear are either half-true or sugar-coated? Either way, the real facts get twisted, whether by accident or on purpose. In this whole mess, there’s only one fix: train these storytellers properly. Teach them how to explain climate issues so clearly that even the editors—who usually chop up stories to fit their media outlet’s agenda—can’t cut out the important parts.

It’s not like no one knows the real problem—it’s just that many climate realities never get the spotlight. A few organisations try to cover up this gap in understanding by our handicapped ‘climate storytellers.’ But even they just pat themselves on the back, saying ‘mission accomplished’ after training a handful of journalists in some fancy hotel with lots of formalities. ‘Now they are certified climate journalists!’

But what do they really teach them? The same old things—how to recycle talking points from some climate expert or a frustrated government officer. And in the end, even these ‘trained’ journalists forget their checklist of dos and don’ts and go right back to their usual, shallow way of reporting. Same old story, just with a ‘climate’ label slapped on it.

What we need is for media workers’ associations—not just media companies—to step up and organise proper, long-term training programs on climate reporting. This way, journalists won’t have to depend on so-called “climate experts” who often secretly work as consultants for the very industries causing environmental harm. They also wouldn’t need to double-check one expert’s claims with another, only to later find out the same polluters are paying both behind all the climate-washing.

Right now, the only ray of hope is a Karachi-based non-profit startup, Climate Action Skills, which just announced a 12-week free training program on climate journalism—with just a small registration fee of Rs.500 for fresh media graduates of Pakistan. These are the people who can bring real change. Before they get swallowed up by the media industry’s usual way of handling climate stories, they’ll at least be properly trained on how to report on environmental issues without letting their stories get butchered in the editing room.

Courtesy: The Friday Times, Pakistan

https://thefridaytimes.com/06-Apr-2025/pakistan-s-climate-crisis-victim-narrative-media-gaps-and-the-urgent-need-for-real-reporting