N2sustain’s Recent Comments

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  Some thoughts on this and last 3-5 posts regarding getting legislation passed on climate / energy. 1. Suggest climate/energy communication and outreach be focused on jobs. Don’t just talk—demonstrate. Take part of remainder of TARP funds and partner with business owners in 4 -5 parts of the country to retrofit shuttered factories to produce windmill parts, geothermal compressors, solar, etc. Publicize the heck out of showing how people are being put back to work. Back to work is the key phrase. 2. Don’t blame President Obama re: climate and lack of leadership. He can’t do anything without Congress acting. And that means convincing enough business people and Republicans that energy and climate legislation means creating jobs and putting people back to work. Recent International Climate Action Day exhorted Obama to “show leadership.” That distracts from real factor of delay==congressional Republicans and “Blue Dog Democrats.” I agree it’s unfortunate that President Obama has taken on so much at one time such as healthcare and education. Jobs/finance, and energy/climate should have been first, and that is enough to confuse folks. President Obama could use more advise from professional marketing and public relations folks to help sell these issues. While we understand the complex interrelationship between jobs, energy, climate, heathcare and future security—it is because we do a lot of reading, and we’re probably not facing imminent job loss. For many citizens, they must focus on getting by day-by-day. If you throw too much at them, especially with level of spending, you run risk of losing public support. Keep it simple, and only a couple of big things at a time, and tie it all to creating jobs today. 3. Cap-and-trade, carbon tax, and Copenhagen. Option 1: Get some sort of cap-and-trade passed with emission targets listed so that the rest of the world will see some action and commitment from the U.S. and follow suit. Then, take 2010 to review carbon tax, and reworking cap-and-trade to make it more verifiable, less giveaway. Option 2: Ask Copenhagen for extension of six months, hope that we can get cap-and-trade passed. What is likelihood we will get it done in six months what with Republican delays, and possible declining support from American people. If it takes more than six months, what is possibility of rest of countries losing public will while their governments wait for American Republicans. Option 3: Scrap existing cap-and=trade, start over debating carbon tax versus cap-and-trade. Hope that we can do it in six months, which given how long it took to work on cap-and-trade. If it takes longer than six months, say another year or so, what do we lose in deforestation, extraction, and possible Republican takeover of Congress and the White House, plus loss of public will in other countries? I think I vote for Option 1 = but would appreciate group=think. N2sustainOn Cautious optimism for Copenhagen deal as Barcelona climate talks end posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago 2 Responses

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  Hi Michael,

  Tks for really interesting post. As someone involved in communicating natural resources conservation issues to the public and the media, I found many of your comments helpful furthering of this topic.  Couple of additional thoughts. Strikes me we're still speaking too esoterically. My husband has a struggling small business. While he is avid outdoors person, he can't mentally focus dealing with a declining planet and all the complex ramifications. He conceptually understands change is needed, but he's having issues with gov spending gobs of money on large corporations/systems, and what he perceives as a problem we have some time on (climate), while the here and now employment systems of the U.S. seem to be unraveling.

  He, I think, like a lot of people, need to have the transistion solutions communicated in simpler practicable 'real world' terms.   At the same time - lots of PR on how the new jobs are starting to emerge, so that people can "see" the path forward, and that change is going to be a positive thing. Maybe a Hollywood producer can translate this into a movie of how we shifted successfully into a new future.
  
  A more practicable approach might force the 'opinion media' programs to shift to a more professional and helpful discussion of how we might go about this, and perhaps reduce their penchant for brawling for infotainment sakes.
  
  Thoughts on messages/approaches below, with emphasis on the fourth leg of the solutions stool - conserving landscapes, since that's my focus.
  
  1. We don't have luxury of waiting to fix the detiorating planet. We need to start now on the planet, while we're also fixing the immediate financial mess.  Unfortunate, yes. Get over it. 
  
  2.   Shift to a simplified, broad message of how we're going to "fix it' : 
  Fixing both climate (and detiorating nat resources) and new employment needs can be summerized as a 4-legged stool approach - (Princeton/Socolow/Pacala):  
  
  a) energy production b) transporation c) building efficiency d) natural landscape conservation.  All these areas offer jobs, jobs, jobs in a way that will allow people to have good salaries and improved quality of life, AND save planetary systems, too.  
  
  Simplifying and keeping things focused into these 4 areas can help people have hope and that there's a solution coming.
  
   3).  Communicate that a certain mass of natural landscapes (aquatic and terrestrial--forest,grasslands, wetlands, oceans, etc) are necessary for life-support systems of air, water, rainfall patterns, and food production (self-sustainable fish and wildlife populations), and that taxpayer money devoted to conserving natural landscapes is in our human financial and physical benefit. This includes paying farmers, builders and other land owners for development rights to NOT convert publicly important natural areas .
  
  4. ). Preserving a connected biological world (fish, wildlife, insects, land and water ) is more than a nicety for wacky  tree-huggers or people rich enough go on hunting and fishing trips. Ensuring self-sustaining fish and wildlife is critical to sustaining people, because millions of people here in the U.S. rely on fish and wildlife for jobs and food.
  
  5). Show a continual stream of examples of how people and businesses are changing, so the bulk of media communication is shifted to ways change is already happening,  and for the better. Emphasis on new ways to earn money for people who currently make a living off activities that convert natural areas to built areas, or extraction for minerals, energy, whathaveyou. People will come around if offer them a way  forward  (job/business) that respects their skills and experience, and asks them to use that experience to contribute to solution.
  
  - Ex: tobacco farmers in SW VIrginia shifted from tobacco to organic farming and having a better quality of life.

  - Builders shifting to high density green residential buildings downtown, with help of revised county codes,  and helping to set aside natural areas to protect watersheds and wildlife, air and water quality.
  
  6) Make the shift as easy as we can for people.  Look at county, state and federal regulations.
  
  7) Focus on educating  county government officials and staff. A lot of political leaders and county staffs don't understand the critical state of planetary condition, and the connection between conserving natural areas and public health, and/or have strong political constituencies that rely on converting land to built areas.
  
  8) Get people who can speak about shifting sources of jobs on Opera, Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley and the financial shows.  Sheer mass of info coming out from more mainline shows which are moderated by professional hosts will help reduce influence of the 'brawl for brawl sakes ' media.

  9) Don't forget small businesses. Lots of political capital and PR is currently focused on big corporations. But I'm concerned we're losing millions of people who own and work at small businesses because they feel left out in this massive upheaval.

   

  On We are what we think: Why the press fails us and how to fix it posted 5 months, 1 week ago 6 Responses