Mr Martin Redfern - Senior Producer, BBC Radio Science Unit
October
2008 | Temple Hall, York St John University
Hope, Hype and Honesty Reporting Global Change: A
Still Point on a Turning Planet
Every astronaut who has seen Planet Earth from the outside has
been struck – often in a deeply spiritual way – by how beautiful
yet fragile it seems; a blue jewel in an unforgiving, black
Universe. That image has become a metaphor of our age and yet its
implications are only just beginning to dawn on the mass media and
the general population.
Past history, present observation and future prediction reveals
dramatic swings in climate. Through adaptability, life in general
has won through, but many species of life and civilisations of
humans have not. This time, we are ourselves the principle
perpetrators of global change, but we could also be the
solution.
The Media’s search for headlines has led to predictions of
climate change being both sensationalised and criticised, to the
confusion of many. Dualistic religion has not helped, suggesting to
some that, as regents over the biosphere, they can do what they
like while comforting others that God will look after them whatever
they do. But we cannot afford to treat Nature as some external,
disposable asset. In a world where every one of us must take
responsibility for the environmental consequences of our actions,
the media have a special responsibility to report the science of
climate change clearly and accurately, without hype or
distortion.
Martin argued that a non-dualistic approach, in which we
recognise that humankind is inseparable from our environment and
that both are inseparable from God, can transform our relationship
with our planet and perhaps with our God.
About Martin Redfern
MARTIN REDFERN is a senior producer in the BBC Radio Science
Unit where he has worked for most of the last 25 years! Before that
he graduated in Geology from University College London, joining the
BBC as a studio manager. He has spent time as a science producer in
BBC TV and as science news editor for BBC World Service. Most of
his work now is on science feature programmes for Radio 4 and World
Service, for which he has won many awards including 3 ABSW science
writer’s awards. In 2005 he was awarded a Templeton Cambridge
Journalism Fellowship in Science and Religion and he is still an
advisor to that scheme. He is also a director of the Scientific and
Medical Network. Earlier this year he spent a month in Antarctica
reporting on climate change and he’s just completed a 30-part
series on the history of cosmology.