Messaging | Grist

TIME TO TOON IN

Climate psychology in cartoons: clues for solving the messaging mystery 7
Posted 2 weeks, 1 day ago Getting Americans to wake up to the reality of climate change is no easy task. But experts at Columbia University believe a mix of psychology, anthropology, and behavioral economics can help, and they've written a guide with cartoons showing how.
cheerful, huh?

Children and riot police face off in Canadian “Moms” video 4
Posted 3 weeks, 1 day ago The Canadian campaign Moms Against Climate Change just released a disturbing short video. And its website will grab your attention too.
Hooray for buzz kills

Obama gives his first real climate speech—really 4
Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago It was no barnburner of a speech, but President Obama’s address at the U.N. Climate Summit Tuesday morning amounted to the boldest climate change speech of his presidency. That's because it was essentially the only climate change speech of his presidency.
delete and reboot

Can Obama deliver health and energy security with a half (assed) message? 0
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
On climate, at least we have one positive message: clean energy jobs, jobs, jobs. Normally, however, a winning campaign has four messages.
all the news that's fit to predict

NYT reads the future: Senate Dems consider maybe doing something in 2010 0
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
The New York Times gets a scoop from May 2010.
From Miley to Marvin

JoBros, Miley Cyrus send on eco-message, and more 1
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
Miley Cyrus, the JoBros, and other Disney tweensters want you to "send it on" -- your love for the earth, that is.
Taxicab Confessions

How should you talk to your cab driver about cap-and-trade? 59
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
What do you say to a cranky cab driver bemoaning the cap-and-trade bill?
There is no right word for doom if it's on page 13

We are what we think: Why the press fails us and how to fix it 6
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
Why has climate change not galvanized us? Why are there "pro" and "con" positions on insuring a livable planet?

The press must accept some of the blame.
Warning: falling metaphors ahead

It’s no time for change, says ad from Gingrich’s group 3
Posted 5 months ago
The people who brought you the “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” energy plan have launched a new TV ad opposing the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill, or, as the new 30-second spot calls it, the “national energy tax.”
It’s got a ring to it, no?

Ditch ‘warming’ and start talking ‘deteriorating atmosphere,’ PR firm says 14
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
Extensive public opinion research from ecoAmerica suggests new climate talking points and other strategies to whet the appetites of on-the-fence Americans.
The Pitch

Think of the children, or think of your ski trip: Two ways to tell the climate story 5
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
What’s going to prompt the average American, or the average citizen in the developed world, to demand action on climate change? Is it the appeal to morality -- "millions will die and be displaced unless we act"? Or is it appeals to self-interest -- "your favorite ski resorts may be snowless very soon"?
Three Degrees of Speculation

Can human rights be the climate movement’s moral guide? 7
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Arguments that climate is, more than anything, a rights issues, from speakers at the Three Degrees conference in Seattle.
“A strong public consensus has emerged on the reality and severity of global warming, as well as on the need for federal action”

Mark Mellman must read on climate messaging: ecoAmerica “could hardly be more wrong” 0
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
One of the world's top pollsters and messaging gurus bashes ecoAmerica's new survey results.
Runaway Joe

Debate: Roberts v. ‘clean coal’ flack Joe Lucas 0
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
Here's an online debate between me and clean coal spokesflack Joe Lucas, originally run by the PBS show NOW.
Clean energy messaging 101: ‘Green’ jobs are out, ‘clean energy’ jobs are in 0
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago
Pitching a bigger tent for efficiency

Energy efficiency and sex 4
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago
"Energy efficiency" is an uninviting term and a cold, sterile concept. Herein, a proposed alternative that allows for abundance, passion, perhaps even sexiness.
Stealing our semantics back

If it walks like a tax and quacks like a tax ... then it’s called cap-and-trade? 0
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago
If you got pissed off when the Bush administration stuck "Clear Skies" labels on their environmental programs, you should be no less fidgety when the phrase "cap-and-trade" is being comparably misused.
What do you expect from a party that wants to be more like Sarah Palin? 3
Posted 9 months, 2 weeks ago
RNC chooses as new leader the author of ‘drill, baby, drill’ 5
Posted 9 months, 3 weeks ago
More on Illinois’ Clean Coal Portfolio Standard 2
Posted 9 months, 4 weeks ago