Is journalism describing the Apocalypse?

Tomas Ciuffardi, journalist at Vision 360 in Ecuador, said, "Environmental issues have become a litany". He states that citizens have created a kind of resistance facing environmental information because it usually has an apocalyptic tone and citizens feel "cornered". Journalism has explained what the problems are, but it has not helped decide what to do and how to act when facing them: "Do not eat meat because the flatulence of cows impacts on climate change, the cigarettes you use can kill a turtle in the ocean, the notebooks you use promote deforestation". With all this information, citizens do not know what to do, and do not feel motivated to act in the face of the environmental reality. 

These thoughts were expressed in the panel "The city covered from an environmental perspective" during the international seminar "Journalism, urban life, and resilience in Latin America", organized by the Fundación Gabriel García Márquez para el Nuevo Periodismo (FNPI) (Gabriel Garcia Marquez Foundation for a New Journalism) and the Cultural Secretariat of Quito, with the support of CAF, Development Bank of Latin America. 

The panel considered three challenges when covering environmental issues: 

• Overcome the easy environmentalism. Different from others, environmental problems do not happen in one minute and, as pointed out by Ecuadorean Belén Arroyo, they are related with different types of aspects. The challenge is to explore the causes, changes and multidimensional character of environmental problems in depth. 
• Citizens live environmental problems. This does not mean that they are aware of it, as these problems become a part of daily life. The challenge is to make evident and human that which has become imperceptible.   
• Technical proposals. These are explanations from specialized organizations. It is necessary to to have information that can be used by citizens so that they can understand their environmental reality. 

At the close of the event, the subject of the role of journalism in this type of coverage was approached. The conclusion was that journalism is not responsible for solving the problems but rather to contribute to the public debate. Alejandra Sánchez, Mexican journalist, summarizes: "An informed society makes better decisions".