The moral of the story: Put positive examples of renewable energy up on the big screen and hybrid vehicles in TV shows. The revolution must be televised

The problem with this approach is that it's too obviously preachy. When some tough cigar-smoking macho cowboy steps into a Prius instead of a Hummer onscreen, people's BS meters go off and they feel like they're being force-fed a message.

I think it would be hard to subtly work in images of wind farms or solar collectors into mainstream Hollywood movies. And besides, most people don't really care about energy or how it's produced...they're only interested in what they can do with it. If you can design energy-efficient products that are so cool that everyone wants one, and you happen to show some of those products in movies, that might help increase their use. But I think that strategy would work better for efficient cars than, say, efficient refrigerators.

The way I see it, there are three options for increase the use of renewables and energy-efficient equipment: 1) make it cool, so people want to use it (this is why more people buy Priuses than hybrid Civics); 2) make it cheaper so people buy it on the basis of price (this is why more people buy regular cars than hybrids); 3) make it the only option available (which requires standards or regulation).

Thanks for that linkback, Chris.  Feel the interblog luv...

...addressing bhurley's comment that

When some tough cigar-smoking macho cowboy steps into a Prius instead of a Hummer onscreen, people's BS meters go off and they feel like they're being force-fed a message.

Agreed.  I think we all can recall some or other "very special episode" of a tv drama or comedy where we knew we were being fed a morally superior line to salve the writer's social conscience.  If a plot turn isn't character-driven, it's going to seem fakey and unconvincing.  Or worse, satirical and disempowering (big burley guy with a poodle, or a Prius..although Toyota will have hybrid pickups some time in the next several years, right?).

I think the key here is not to think in terms of strident activism, of "telling people what they ought to know," and allow for the eco ideas to populate the background details of a show.  Maybe a character drinks organic coffee.  Maybe she and her friend have a walk-and-talk on their way to the newspaper recycling bin.

There might also be green ideas that could be worked into shows in character-driven ways.  Like, say one of the Desperate Housewives starts a garden, and then starts collecting fruit scraps for compost, and gets some kind of satisfaction from her gorgeous organic tomatoes that offsets her ennui.  Or her child's hyperactivity disorder is addressed by getting the kid out into nature.

Yes, I think the trick is to show these technologies and behaviors in an offhand way without drawing attention to them, so they're seen as a normal everyday part of life.

There's a tiny NGO in Boston called "Second Nature" which used to describe its mission as working to make environmentally sustainable behavior second nature--something that people don't even think about because it is so deeply ingrained in them. I've always liked that concept.

Thought I saw a Prius in that show. Perfect, since Larry and Laurie David are NRDC mucky-mucks.