Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Humans and other creatures owe their survival to the environment, that is, food, water, and habitat. However, humans have continued to cause impurity, degradation, and even devastation to the environment, causing health hazards and environmental malaise. It is the latter that has given birth to environmental communication. This paper explores the connections between Africans and the environment. Analyses is made of how environmental crises are communicated through the media, government, and stakeholders. Although the scientific community and lawmakers are aware of the dangers of a hazardous environment, media have reported the issue as rooted in conflict and uncertainty. Hence, environmental communication has taken a multidisciplinary perspective, examining how environmental issues develop, various viewpoints, and the relevant scientific and technical information. Internationally, South Africa was unimportant because the majority black population (seventy-nine percent) was uprooted and transplanted at will by the racial white-only government (apartheid) to restrict black movement and population growth. However, today’s South Africa pursues an environmental sustainability policy, and participated in the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). In 2009, East African nations met in Kigali (Rwanda) to reaffirm their commitment to examine linkages between population and the environment. In March 2015, president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia signed a “Declaration of Principles” on the Nile hydropower dam. Networks have emerged in different parts of Africa to program and disseminate information, plus environmental analyses, features, and opinions. The pursuant media-environment union is, indeed, mutually inclusive.