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I remain momentarily obsessed with questions of message, audience and presentation. Bear with me. Or don’t. As you choose.
It was sheer chance that Bill McKibben’s pastoral visit on behalf of environmental action occurred one day after Thomas Cahill’s repotted history of the Middle Ages. But McKibben illustrated the right way to popularize a potentially difficult topic, as Cahill (alas) did not.
McKibben steered clear of standard sentiments (no polar bears adrift on ice floes), and emphasized the need for an imaginative, coordinated but decentralized grassroots campaign comparable to the civil rights movement of half a century ago. “One light bulb at a time won’t be enough to get us through this.”
I question his presumption that using the number 350 is the way to raise awareness of atmospheric carbon levels (on the assumption that the number brings the issue of the safe level 350 ppm to the fore, and that a public that is aware of this will realize that safe carbon levels are akin to safe cholesterol levels: when you’re over the limit, you change your behavior).
But whatever I think of 350.org, McKibben’s new globally focused website, I was struck by the effect of the website he and seven of his students launched in 2007, publicizing a specific date for actions to help build on the country's increasing awareness of global warming. With (if his story is accurate) no organization co-promoting the particular day in question, they got 1400 demonstrations across the U.S., some of them spectacularly creative.
In Key West, the organizers hoisted a yacht twenty feet in the air to show where sea level would be once Greenland’s ice melts into the ocean. It doesn’t matter if the math was inexact or excessive; it was meant as a visual metaphor, and it got media attention in the immediate vicinity.
The emphasis on coordinated “think for yourself” activity means that some of the local actions will be less insightful and effective than others, of which, more in a moment. I’m primarily interested in McKibben’s model for inciting popular action.
Instead of leading the usual cheers of “we can do it,” McKibben ended his speech with the caution that “we might not win this one.” Comparing the original civil rights movement with the present environmental initiative, he cited Martin Luther King’s abiding and justified faith that “the arc of history is long, but it trends ultimately toward moral justice.” [inexact quote] We, however, said McKibbin, are up against not just the arc of history, but the arc of nature, and “nature doesn’t care a thing about moral justice. We are engaged in a race against time as defined by the facts of physics and chemistry.”
Nevertheless, he ended his call to action with a reminder of the rapidity with which global warming statistics had been transformed into presidential campaign promises, courtesy of Al Gore and the Nobel Prize committee. And he summed up with “Replace the light bulbs. Then replace the senators and the representatives.”
This is the smart way to popularize and mobilize, in contrast to the fatuous initiatives that make me feel like going out and re-installing incandescent lighting.
It was sheer chance that Bill McKibben’s pastoral visit on behalf of environmental action occurred one day after Thomas Cahill’s repotted history of the Middle Ages. But McKibben illustrated the right way to popularize a potentially difficult topic, as Cahill (alas) did not.
McKibben steered clear of standard sentiments (no polar bears adrift on ice floes), and emphasized the need for an imaginative, coordinated but decentralized grassroots campaign comparable to the civil rights movement of half a century ago. “One light bulb at a time won’t be enough to get us through this.”
I question his presumption that using the number 350 is the way to raise awareness of atmospheric carbon levels (on the assumption that the number brings the issue of the safe level 350 ppm to the fore, and that a public that is aware of this will realize that safe carbon levels are akin to safe cholesterol levels: when you’re over the limit, you change your behavior).
But whatever I think of 350.org, McKibben’s new globally focused website, I was struck by the effect of the website he and seven of his students launched in 2007, publicizing a specific date for actions to help build on the country's increasing awareness of global warming. With (if his story is accurate) no organization co-promoting the particular day in question, they got 1400 demonstrations across the U.S., some of them spectacularly creative.
In Key West, the organizers hoisted a yacht twenty feet in the air to show where sea level would be once Greenland’s ice melts into the ocean. It doesn’t matter if the math was inexact or excessive; it was meant as a visual metaphor, and it got media attention in the immediate vicinity.
The emphasis on coordinated “think for yourself” activity means that some of the local actions will be less insightful and effective than others, of which, more in a moment. I’m primarily interested in McKibben’s model for inciting popular action.
Instead of leading the usual cheers of “we can do it,” McKibben ended his speech with the caution that “we might not win this one.” Comparing the original civil rights movement with the present environmental initiative, he cited Martin Luther King’s abiding and justified faith that “the arc of history is long, but it trends ultimately toward moral justice.” [inexact quote] We, however, said McKibbin, are up against not just the arc of history, but the arc of nature, and “nature doesn’t care a thing about moral justice. We are engaged in a race against time as defined by the facts of physics and chemistry.”
Nevertheless, he ended his call to action with a reminder of the rapidity with which global warming statistics had been transformed into presidential campaign promises, courtesy of Al Gore and the Nobel Prize committee. And he summed up with “Replace the light bulbs. Then replace the senators and the representatives.”
This is the smart way to popularize and mobilize, in contrast to the fatuous initiatives that make me feel like going out and re-installing incandescent lighting.
