The Pentagram-based environmental public service Do The Green Thing has launched #AntiSkeptic, a campaign that calls on the news media to put an end to the so-called ‘debate on climate change’.
The campaign takes on journalists who for decades have given platforms to climate change skeptics (née: deniers) who contradict the peer-reviewed-facts endorsed by 97% of the world’s climate scientists, while urging the public to further defy the deniers by taking green action in their lives.
Launching with ‘We are #AntiSkeptic’, a Anonymous-inspired call to arms directed by Steven Qua, the campaign instructs people to hold media outlets that chose to feature climate change skeptics to account. The film’s visuals, which were created by cutting together archive footage taken from popular films and television shows, firmly point the finger at the mainstream media for turning the reality of climate change into a debate.
#AntiSkeptic is underpinned by Do The Green Thing’s latest publication, which describes how the news media covers climate change through opposing points of view, often argued by two people who are given equal billing: the expert, backed by the overwhelming global scientific consensus, versus the skeptic, backed by flimsy qualifications and paid-for-opinions. It concludes that journalists are conflating objectivity with neutrality, presenting arguments as if they share equal validity or weight, when in fact they don’t.
Special thanks to Nitesh Nagrath for his research contributions to Issue 8.
