'Focus on environmental issues'

MOCHO, Clarendon:

NEWS EDITORS in Jamaica need to start paying serious attention to environmental issues, including climate change, with a view to raising public awareness over time instead of only reacting to natural disasters, as they now do, says Indi McLymont-Lafayette, regional director, community media and environment, at Panos Caribbean. She was speaking after a media training workshop on climate change and biodiversity in Mocho on Tuesday, March 29, which was the latest component of the Voices for Climate Change and Biodiversity Education Project.

"The coverage is too low, and definitely, some editors need to sit up and pay attention to these issues, and the secret that they don't know is that this is where the money is gonna be, but it might be too late," she told The Gleaner.

"Climate-change adaptation is going to be the next big thing for the next five to 10 years because that's where all the donors are going to be putting all the funds for awareness. So if you are smart, you start from early, because that's where the funding will be for development, and media need to be looking at that," McLymont-Lafayette added.