We are delighted to be part of IIED’s event Conflict, Climate and Migration in Syria – did the media get it right?
Monday 3rd October, 3.30 – 5.15pm, IIED, 80 – 86 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8NH
Email to request to attend with your name and organsiation:
Chair: Andrew Norton, Director – IIED
Speaker: Alex Randall – Climate and Migration Coalition / Climate Outreach
Discussants:
Megan Rowling – Thomson Reuters Foundation
Kristy Siegfried – Migration Editor, IRIN
This talk makes the case that there are powerful connections between climate change and the conflict in Syria. However, the story given by the mainstream media about these connections was not always accurate. This talk unpacks both the media story and the scientific evidence. The key thesis of the presentation is that the role of migration – and migrants themselves – was misunderstood by the press and public. This talk places climate change and migration amongst the other powerful drivers of conflict in Syria; and explores how these forces have interacted to create the war that unfolded.
Timings
3.30 – 4.00pm Talk, Alex Randall
4.00 – 4.30pm Discussants respond
4.30 – 4.50pm Q & A
4.50 – 5.15pm Networking and nibbles
Read our report: Syria and climate change: did the media get it right?
Alex Randall
The Climate and Migration Coalition is a network of refugee and migration organisations working together on issues around climate, displacement and disasters. Alex was lead author on the Moving Stories project, a report exploring the testimonies of people displaced by climate change impacts. He is author of several academic papers looking at migration and climate change, and specifically at the how the issue is reported by the media and perceived by the public. He has written extensively for various media outlets on the topic, including for the Guardian. The Climate and Migration Coalition has advised several international agencies and NGOs on issues around migration and climate change and what the issue means for their organisations.
Megan Rowling
Megan coves the latest developments in humanitarian crises, aid, climate change, governance and women’s rights. She specialises in the impacts of climate change on developing countries, and solutions to this growing problem, including disaster risk reduction and climate finance. She has worked to develop the foundation’s reporting on climate change since the mid-2000s. She also edits articles and does web production. Before joining the foundation, Megan was a print and television journalist in Britain, France and Japan. Since the mid-1990s, she has written and reported on-screen for Reuters, the BBC, the Times, the Guardian, New Internationalist, the Daily Yomiuri and Jiji Press, among others, covering economics, business and politics. She also worked for short periods in media relations for the British Red Cross and as a translator. She has a degree in Japanese and a master’s degree in development management.