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Media tackle environment issues
By Takeshi Kokubu |
February 2, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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I participated as a moderator in the "Asian City Journalist Conference" held in Fukuoka on December 14 last year, which coincided with the Fukuoka Motor Show 2009.
It was the 4th Conference co-organized by the UN Human Settlements Program (Habitat) Fukuoka Office, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan and the Nishinippon Newspaper.
This time, under the theme of "Towards sustainable transportation and cities without environmental divide," journalists from eight Asian cities from Busan of South Korea to Jakarta of Indonesia discussed how to tackle the carbon dioxide reduction to prevent global warming.
"Environmental divide" is the problem of environmental disparities: economically poor people often live in the areas where land, water and air are polluted and do not benefit from the environment compared to rich people. Between rural and urban, between cities, even within the urban areas, environmental gap is large.
The discussion during the Conference highlighted the gaps between the eight participating cities in the urban environment.
The journalists from Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Manila reported the difficult situations struggling for the development of efficient public transport, while Fukuoka, Busan and Singapore have already developed it.
Journalists experienced "environmentally friendly" new technology during their stay in Fukuoka through the test-ride of fuel cell vehicles and hybrid vehicles and also through the visit to Kyushu University International Research Center for Hydrogen Energy.
However, they gasped to learn that the price of the fuel cell bus that they rode to and from the city center and suburban areas is about 300 million yen (US$3 million)! So, what can the media do to help establish sustainable transport and environment, and eliminate the disparities? Developing campaigns, reporting success and failure cases, educating young people.
Robert Adhi Kusumaputra (Kompas, Indonesia) proposed the continuation of discussion on the Internet, and demonstrated a prototype that he had prepared.
Habitat Fukuoka Office will set up the Asian Cities Partnership home page by this coming March.
They plan to upload the articles written by the ACJC journalists in English and Japanese on it, aiming to share and spread the information and know-how toward sustainable cities.
(The author is senior editor of the Nishinippon Newspaper, Japan.)
It was the 4th Conference co-organized by the UN Human Settlements Program (Habitat) Fukuoka Office, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan and the Nishinippon Newspaper.
This time, under the theme of "Towards sustainable transportation and cities without environmental divide," journalists from eight Asian cities from Busan of South Korea to Jakarta of Indonesia discussed how to tackle the carbon dioxide reduction to prevent global warming.
"Environmental divide" is the problem of environmental disparities: economically poor people often live in the areas where land, water and air are polluted and do not benefit from the environment compared to rich people. Between rural and urban, between cities, even within the urban areas, environmental gap is large.
The discussion during the Conference highlighted the gaps between the eight participating cities in the urban environment.
The journalists from Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Manila reported the difficult situations struggling for the development of efficient public transport, while Fukuoka, Busan and Singapore have already developed it.
Journalists experienced "environmentally friendly" new technology during their stay in Fukuoka through the test-ride of fuel cell vehicles and hybrid vehicles and also through the visit to Kyushu University International Research Center for Hydrogen Energy.
However, they gasped to learn that the price of the fuel cell bus that they rode to and from the city center and suburban areas is about 300 million yen (US$3 million)! So, what can the media do to help establish sustainable transport and environment, and eliminate the disparities? Developing campaigns, reporting success and failure cases, educating young people.
Robert Adhi Kusumaputra (Kompas, Indonesia) proposed the continuation of discussion on the Internet, and demonstrated a prototype that he had prepared.
Habitat Fukuoka Office will set up the Asian Cities Partnership home page by this coming March.
They plan to upload the articles written by the ACJC journalists in English and Japanese on it, aiming to share and spread the information and know-how toward sustainable cities.
(The author is senior editor of the Nishinippon Newspaper, Japan.)
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