EnviroSpin Watch

BBC Online News much better than most...

As usual, Alex Kirby, BBC Online News Environment Correspondent, is much better than most of his colleagues at presenting a balanced report (The Guardian and The Independent please emulate). His piece this morning on 'Slum growth "shames the world"' carefully avoids gratuitous attacks on 'globalisation', and, indeed, reports some very balanced quotes, e.g.:-

'Speaking at the report's London launch, Professor Patrick Wakely of University College London said: "I was in a slum recently in Surabaya, in Indonesia. Someone pointed out the shoes I was wearing had probably been made in that slum itself. Globalisation can offer opportunities that weren't available in the past."'

In addition, an increasing urban emphasis is surely much needed. Far too much ecohype is about places where people do not live, and it fails to focus on the poor, especially on the urban poor. Indeed, the poor are sometimes quite unacceptably presented as the problem. Phrases like the 'teeming millions' still crop up all too glibly, and, when used by people in the rich North about the people of the South, border on racism. The real environmental issues over the next fifty years will be urban, with up to 70 per cent of the world's population moving to cities and towns. And it is surely a disgrace that 6.2 per cent of Europeans can still be classed as 'slum dwellers'. We have a lot to do to get our own house in order before we lecture others. Tough challenges for a Monday morning. Philip.