Do green campaigners need a new strategy?
An article in The Guardian newspaper today confirms our long held suspicion that despite being convinced of the risks of climate change (according to a recent poll, 9 out of 10 people believe it is a problem), the majority of people aren’t really prepared to make any kind of sacrifice to deal with the problem - car journeys, aviation, consumer consumption and home energy usage are all rising.
And attempts to fight climate change are further confounded by the fact that Governments are unprepared to risk their popularity by making decisions that will have any real impact - governments are approving new runways, drilling for more oil and undermining carbon trading schemes by over allocating credits.
Since little seems to have been achieved by doomsday scenarios to spur people into action, we think it might be time for green campaigners to come up with some new strategies to motivate the public into fighting climate change:
Suggestion 1 - seek help with the consequences, not the cause
In the 80’s it would have been hard to motivate people to donate money to the third world just by showing bad weather forecasts. But millions responded to pictures on their televisions of starving children and record amounts were donated to charity during Live Aid, and other similar events. (let’s forget the fact that the money hardly helped)
Sad, but true. Maybe it is really time to give up on prevention and focus on cure?
Suggestion 2 - make being green cool
Let’s face it, for most people a green lifestyle is a bit too wholemeal. Most people lead busy lives and just don’t have the time to make the kind of compromises currently required.
But being green can be easy, and can be cool. Toyota proved this with the Prius - a green marketing phenomena which appealed to the gadget loving mid 30’s plus male with its computer game style power display and spooky near silent operation. (let’s forget the fact that it’s not actually that much better for the environment).
Suggestion 3 - make not being green un-cool
The anti-smoking lobby have been successful in convincing people not only that smoking is bad for you (which it is), but also that it is anti-social (which it is), and have stigmatised smokers to such an extent that many countries and states have successfully outlawed smoking in public places with barely a whimper of complaint from the public.
Developing the same kind of negative image around SUVs, long-haul holidays and generally enjoying yourself could be an effective way to change public behaviour. (let’s forget about the fact that many people still think that smoking is cool).
We are sure there are more possibilities - what are your ideas for new green strategies?
People may accept that Global Warming is man made but I’m not sure that indicates they really understand the issue. I bet if the survey asked people if a worldwide 2 or 3 degree Celsius rise in temperature would cause any problems, you would find few who would think it so.
People are incredibly ignorant about this and other environmental issues. It isn’t because environmentalists have
been too alarmist. It’s because the media and the politicians have been so pathetic on the issue.
If my house is burning, I don’t want to calm people down, I want people to understand it’s a damn emergency and we need to get off our butts now.