Quiet. When the sun sinks into the warm embrace of the flora, the world is quiet. When the stars pierce through the slow dance of the river, the world is quiet. When people relish in the blossoming fruit of life, the world is quiet. Yet that silence is disturbed by the persistent growling of chainsaws, the pounding of pickaxes piercing through stone, and the wailing of displaced citizens. What was once quiet is now disturbed by a deafening silence where every piece of life is ravaged.
Silence sides with those who live their lives in excess, taking from and devastating the Earth. It is a luxury only few can afford, one that encourages complicity among those benefiting from exploitation. Environmental journalists take part in the struggle to break this silence by reporting environmental cases as part of a larger pattern of oppression rather than isolated cases.
The main root of the environmental crisis stems from the political elite, who then punish dissenting environmental reporters and advocacy leaders. Thirteen years have passed since the murder of Palawan-based broadcaster and environmentalist Gerry Ortega after he exposed the misuse of Malampaya funds. Ortega, alongside community journalists such as Frenchie Cumpio, work with local leaders to help counteract corrupt environmental practices.
Multiple generations are forced to witness these environmental injustices, for instance, the multibillion Jalaur Mega Dam project in Iloilo dates back more than 60 years. The dam is estimated to displace 17,000 citizens. Four years ago, the Tumandok people’s protests to defend their ancestral land were met with violence, leaving nine leaders killed, 16 arrested, and no case filed against the military, reported alternative media outfit Bulatlat.
In this case, Bulatlat's close reportage of the environmental crisis underscored overlooked and underreported cases of social and environmental injustice. Meanwhile, the mainstream media focused on funding, security, and environmental benefits of the dam. Reports excluded the Tumandok 9 massacre despite it occurring at the same time. Social issues, such as these, are framed in isolation from environmental cases that provide incomplete narratives.
A critical environmental report should complement the sciences with the humanities. For instance, Kaingin, or the slash-and-burn method of farming, is commonly portrayed in media as primitive and destructive despite having scientific and cultural significance. Environmental journalists from the Northern Dispatch curb this narrative by reporting on the sustainability of the Kaingin practices of the Ankileng community in Sagada, Mountain Province. Cost-effective cultural traditions are quite often vilified in service of modern practices that require bigger budgets.
Mainstream reporters fall victim to sensationalized reports that focus on economy, spectacle, and novelty. Popular media coverage topics like eco-taxes, commodification of natural resources, and carbon trading are misdirected solutions to the crux of the problem, according to Daniel Tanuro, an agriculturalist and eco-socialist environmentalist. The core issue, he contends, is the relentless drive for profit from capitalist industries.
Mainstream news stories usually echo and reinforce capitalist narratives that come from political elite circles. Then, critical discourse from independent press that contradicts the elites’ narratives is sidelined, undermining the narratives of marginalized voices altogether.
Green capitalism posits that through investing assets, the consumption of resources can coexist with environmental sustainability. Capitalists funnel their agenda to the media through interviews and official reports. Journalists are then pushed to rely on “experts” from the government and business sectors as their primary source. In turn, journalists are given exclusive and breaking stories that power the news cycle.
Red-tagging and violent attacks against environmental journalists further stifle the reportage of dissenting views against powerful forces. Worldwide, a series of state strong-arming of the environmental press has resulted in 70 percent of environmental journalists being attacked at work, with at least 44 killed, according to a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization report. The press can hold such perpetrators of violence and environmental disasters accountable through weaponized language.
In reporting, the political, social, economic, and cultural contexts should be included in news reports to provide greater audience understanding. Through public funding, the additional support and funds for independent climate desks mean more thorough investigations of the four contexts and scientific reporting, short of editorial bias.
The need for more comprehensive environmental reports is for the benefit of the people who deserve to be portrayed with complete context. The people are as important as the environment that they have cultivated, transformed, and created a community within. Journalists are responsible for framing narratives that empower the very communities whose stories and lives they borrow from.
Environmental journalists play a crucial role within a larger movement that works toward a Philippine media that no longer refuses to break the silence. Working toward a quiet future, where protected forests and lands thrive, and where the people can indulge in the drifting skies and seas. For the time being, however, environmental reporting is only the beginning of a long and arduous process of liberating a nation bursting to speak. ●
