Planet Earth on the Eve of the Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009: A Study of Prestige Newspapers from Different Continents

Authors

  • Radoslaw Sajna Kazimierz Wielki University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS622012367

Keywords:

Earth, climate change, COP15, newspapers, global debate

Abstract

The problem of the changing climate in the broader ecological context is one of the main subjects of the global debate, because it concerns the whole planet and all the people inhabiting different continents. Before the United Nations’ international climate conference (COP15), taking place in December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark, prestige newspapers from different continents and countries published editorials, reports or at least news about the climate problem and expectations towards the conference. 56 dailies from all the continents published a joint alarming editorial that underlined the urgent problem of the global warming and the need to battle it “for the humanity’s sake”. The majority of those 56 dailies are leftist ones, while other dailies published another important editorials or reports. In this study, different conservative and liberal newspapers from Europe are analyzed, as well as another ones from other continents. Although the European (and then the Northern American) press dedicated relatively most space to the problem, in other continents the prestige newspapers published some texts concerning the climate change too. The results show also that not only leftist newspapers treat the climate problem seriously. There is rather a kind of global pluralism in looking for the ways to battle the climate change, but not in the sense to do it.

Author Biography

Radoslaw Sajna, Kazimierz Wielki University

PhD (Warsaw University, 2005) Lecturer and researcher (Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland)

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Published

2012-06-05

How to Cite

Sajna, R. (2012). Planet Earth on the Eve of the Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009: A Study of Prestige Newspapers from Different Continents. Observatorio (OBS*), 6(2). https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS622012367

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2012)

Section

Articles

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