Marketing Sustainability

To bring about a speeder change to a sustainable life style. a tool at our disposal is marketing which, because it is very expensive, hasn’t been fully exploited to our advantage. However I have worked with marketing people and studied the books so here are my ideas for consideration.

• Keep it simple – focus on the single most important issue. From reading Greta’s Climate book I think this is “stop burning stuff” All other issues are secondary and  whilst important, distract. These can be dealt with after people have accepted the priority issue. So “Ban the Burn or its going to be hotter and hotter and hotter" or more positively  "Electrify your life".
  
• Answer the Why question – “just because smoke is clear these days, does not mean it’s not dangerous” or “We’ve made a good job of clearing up all the dirty smoke we can see  – now its time to tackle the important stuff we can’t see”. This last statement is a positive one showing its not all doom and gloom. ( Living in Sheffield, it annoys me when we forget UK rivers and air are the cleanest they have been for over a century).
• Make the message personal – answer the question “What is the benefit to me?” This can be addressed by saying “Show you are caring, smart and love life, by going green”. The implication is that if you don’t, your selfish, dumb and nihilist – but this must never be stated.
• Always  Stress the positive, not the negative, - “were making progress, the world is cleaner, so help to do more”
• Show that changing your choices or vote is not pointless - other people are rapidly changing too  – “people all around the world are joining us”, Get celebrity  endorsement. Show Green thinking is now mainstream – the other parties are making promises too, but will they implement?
• Address the doomsters – would you rather live in a hot house or a comfortable house?
• Stay focused – don’t get distracted, dismiss deniers with a simple, “ you still think that” or “your behind the times mate!” sort of attitude.
• Be humorous - For Celeb endorsement I would love it if Sean Kelly the world famous cycling champ and thoroughly lovely man stood up and said “go green – or its going to be a real killer!” , which is what he always says just before the cyclists have to pedal up some steep  mountain in the Alps.
  

If you are working for a sustainable future, I wish you success with your endeavours. You have the whole world of science saying that what you are doing is correct.  If you just pull on the holds you can reach, and after that reach for the next ones, you will reach the top of the mountain!!!

Being Green shows you are caring, intelligent, and love the world.

 If, like me, you watch old movies, you can't help but notice the amount of smoking that people used to do. In films today you rarely get a shot of  a beautiful man or woman,  looking fabulous whilst puffing away on a cigarette. How and why did this change  occur?

Well, now, we all know that cigarettes are bad for you, the premature death of millions is undisputed . So smoking is now seen as a pleasant in the short term, but stupid in the long term, activity. It's not sexy anymore. Even increasing government regulations is not disputed as a right of freedom issue. Societies understand that less smoking is good and sensible.

Greta Thunberg, because she learnt early, is young and so unhindered by societies established norms, has taken it upon herself to highlight to everyone the stupidity of burning stuff and wreaking the planet. Her current message is that if people learn about climate change and its effects, they not be able to do anything but act wisely and will swiftly change their lifestyles. This may be a sound long term strategy but to achieve the rapid change in direction that is required, ie to change our entire civilization from one based on dirty fossil fuels, to one based on renewables that needs a completely different infrastructure in a few decades, I think her efforts are admirable, but naive.

People can't be forced to learn, they can ignore the truth, or choose to delude themselves with excuses not to change or simply not care about the world or the future. They can continue enjoying their current way of life regardless of the consequences to others. We have to be honest, we all act in our own self interest. We, on the whole, put our self first, our family or tribe second and the every one else last. Why should I pay for heat pumps in my house, or buy a new expensive electric car, or give up meat sausages or foreign holidays to exotic places, or pay higher taxes for renewable energy? Why should we all do what that kid with some funny syndrome says?

Greta and many others like her know that because the consequences of continuing to dump so much CO2 into the planets atmosphere will mean continually rising global temperatures and just by watching the news or weather forecasts, its becoming obvious that we have no choice, we have to change, we have to stop burning stuff. But how?

I think the change in smoking habits holds the key. We must make being green a sexy, high status intelligent lifestyle choice. Being a smoker is now seen as stupid, it may be pleasant in the short term, but in the long term it will kill you (it killed my Grandfather). It is anti social as it harms the health those close to you and shows you are selfish and don't care about others. Smoking is expensive demonstrating you are unintelligent as you waste your money on harming your self for a short term hit and don't use your money for better things. How many of these statements also apply to being non green? We need to socially stigmatise, fossil fuels, excessive consumption, wrecking the planet etc etc.

 In the past comments in every day conversation often included "Are you still smoking, you aught to give that up you know". Today we need to hear, "you've still got a gas boiler!" or " you still driving an SUV, how naughty" Or "we don't have to take our kids on a far away holiday to have fun" or how about "I don't need to take Johnny to fantasy world in America, he knows I love him already" or " I love a man in an electric car, it shows he cares for me, my children and the planet". This may be crude but I bet it will be effective ( I nicked all these ideas from current adverts). 

A top celeb showing people round their wonderful zero carbon home will also get people thinking about their own obsolete energy inefficient homes. So who could this be?

Once this trend is set in motion, others wont want to miss out and will switch. Companies will fall over themselves to align their products to a green caring intelligent selfless lifestyle. Change will be rapid and unstoppable once it gets underway.

To a certain extent this is already happening, but the process must be pushed harder so those in power truly believe in it. This will stop things like new coal mines being opened (as no one will invest in them). Nicotinoids being approved (as it will lose significant votes at election), or lack of investment in a hydrogen industry (Governments will want to show they are wise).

This can be done - the movies prove it.

Civilization Collapse - Is Humanity Committing Suicide?

 I've avoided writing about climate change, as far better writers than I have provided a glut of info on the subject. However, this is my (be warned gloomy) view of  reality. 

Back in Victorian times the river Thames was London’s waste disposal system. All of the cities rubbish, excrement, filth and muck was chucked in so that the river could flush it away. Even dead dogs where lobbed in for nature to dispose of. The problem was, that whilst the river carried the poo downstream, the tide brought it all back again six hours later. The stench was appalling, but nothing was done until the summer of 1858, when Parliament was suspended, because, such was the pong, that the retching MP’s could no longer debate the important issues of the day. Only after MP’s had been directly inconvenienced, was it finally decided to build a modern sewage system that piped the waste a long way down river, thus shifting the problem to some one else’s back yard. The whole affair came to be known as the “Great Stink“.

In our small attempt to make the world a better place, my partner and I often litter pick our local roads and paths. All too frequently we come back from a walk with a couple of bags of drinks cans, plastic bottles, sweet wrappers, surgical masks and crisp packets. On the quieter country lanes, fly tipping, cannabis farm debris and the contents of stolen cars are too common, but require clearance by the  Council. If our experiences are anything to go by, most people in the neighbourhood don’t give two hoots about their environment and are quite happy to live in a place that looks like a rubbish tip, or assume the people at the Council have nothing better to do, and plenty of money, to clear up after them.

Our friends, who have a wood burning stove, have just had a few hundred weight of coal delivered. They have decided that wood, even though it is a carbon neutral fuel, doesn’t give as warm and cosy a fire as burning coal, so have stocked up for the winter. They are both animal lovers, intelligent middle class folk, and one of them volunteers for the local Wildlife Trust, so outwardly have good environmental credentials. However, when it comes to their own personal luxury and comfort, choose to ignore the CO2 emissions.

Whilst being driven about in a large 4X4 SUV, a retired science Professor I have known for years said “When I watch David Attenborough, and he is talking about Climate Change and damage to the environment, I feel so helpless”. I was truly shocked that such a clever and intelligent person could say such a thing. “Well we all have to start making small changes, as that’s what’s got us into this mess” was my lame reply. Politeness stopped me staying “well you could start by getting rid of this F******* big gas guzzler”
 
Even though in a previous essay,  I’ve come to the conclusion that because it harms future generations, it is morally wrong to use fossil fuels, I have to own up to still driving a diesel car. So I am a hypocrite of the highest order. When I bought the car 8 years ago, it was the most fuel efficient car for my driving profile and whilst my next car is going to be electric, I’m not going to change until the diesel packs up. With a 600+ mile range, low road tax and enough room to sleep in the back, an electric car will not be as good for my holidays to Scotland or the West Coast. Giving up my personal conveniences for the environment is proving too hard, even though I know it is morally wrong not to change.

The UK Government has set targets and says it is tackling the Climate emergency, but the first thing they did, was to propose a law that restricts people like Extinction Rebellion  protesting about it. People on the streets causing disruption is just too inconvenient. As for their other policies, I get the impression they will do as little as they can get away with, as they know that the vast majority of voters, when it comes to the crunch, want cheap fossil fuels to maintain their life styles of luxury, parties and selfish enjoyment. The future can’t vote, so its business as usual please.

It’s the same the world over. As counties wake up to what reducing carbon emissions will entail, resistance is becoming more visible and vocal. India, whose population size will soon over take that of China, says it wants to build coal fired power stations to develop its economy as it is the cheapest way to do it. China continues to increase the number of coal power stations even though it professes to be on a path to net Zero. Australia and Poland keep on digging the stuff, Saudi Arabia pumps the oil as its is its only source of wealth. Germany keep buying Russia gas even though it knows it is funding the war in Ukraine and heating the planet.The UK sets targets and talks the talk about building wind farms and nuclear power plants but that is a knee jerk reaction to our national security rather than because of the climate emergency. What do you think will happen when the war is over and we can resume buying Russian gas and oil without feeling guilty, have got a handle on how much green energy will cost, and the next election is won by the party that promises the voters they will cut your fuel bill and taxes?

And that's the problem with the Climate Change Emergency. Everyone, every Country, and even myself all act in our own self interest rather than for the good of the whole. We do the easiest thing and not the correct thing. It’s human nature, to primarily look after ourselves or our social group, but it can’t go on or we will wreck our ecosystems, collapse our civilization and kill millions.

When the meteorite hit 66 million years ago the planet changed radically. The world dominated by the dinosaurs ended and the mammals  evolved to take their place.  The world has never been the same since. The Permian Triassic extinction had an even bigger impact. What isn't generally know is that both of these and all the other mass extinctions, were caused by wild changes in CO2 levels. Life couldn't cope with the rapid environmental change. Meteorites impacts make for a better movie but is was the Deccan traps pumping out C02 that saw off the dinosaurs after the deep winter of the impact. Currently we humans, by burning fossil fuels, are doing what  volcanoes did millions of years ago but at a far faster rate. Our man made Climate Change will have a similar effect. Mass extinction. (see Scotese, Mills & van der Meer (2020) for the global temperature curve over a geologic time scale.)

The problem is that unlike a meteor strike that would obviously require action, carbon dioxide is invisible, likewise sea level change and ocean acidification. You can only see them in scientists statistics which are not very interesting to people concentrating on their daily lives. Even though it is not a climate change problem, plastic in the ocean is visible and so action is easier to promote, . Flooding or large storms may be increasing in frequency, but they come and go locally, so have no permanence in the wider public's imagination. Exotic species, always the first to go extinct, don’t affect anyone and soon get forgotten. Fishermen have already forgotten about North Sea herring  and are currently working their way down the food chain, catching not fish but crustaceans. I expect they will soon be harvesting the plankton. . 

Compare the climate change problem with the recent covid saga for instance. Almost overnight,  a great many people on this planet suddenly woke up to the fact that if they caught the virus, they could die tomorrow. Having to face up to their own mortality, what happened? From the fear, panic and hysteria that followed there was instant action. People immediately surrendered their freedom, locked themselves away, stopped seeing their friends and family, refused to go to work and hid away like frightened rabbits. And as the majority is always right, the Governments of the world went along with it even though historically covid is a mild disease that only picks off the old, unhealthy or genetically unlucky. In the UK £400Billion was spent and what have we got to show for it now? Older people are still dying of covid.  In China they are still trying to defeat nature - good luck to them.  But climate change is not like Covid, its hard to get worked up about a concept that will affect future generations, not ourselves. There is no immediate threat, so why take immediate action?. When will the changing climate become a crisis - only when it is too late to do anything about it. As demonstrated by the Great Sink, those in power will only take action when it affects them directly and stops them dealing with their important short term issues - like raising and spending money.

 
So I think that we will be very lucky indeed if the world solves the climate change problem and scientists warnings don’t materialise. Hopefully fusion reactors will be economic. If not, I doubt Governments will show the leadership required and will continue to pander to greedy voters who can never be criticised. Also the challenge of  changing human nature through education in so short a space of time will never be possible. Unless there is something equivalent to a “ Global Great Stink” or Covid Crisis or dramatic meteor strike, the required drastic action will not be implemented.  Because of human's selfish genes, preprogrammed tendency to look after your own social group and lack of real intelligence, we aren't geared up to deal with an invisible and indirect problem of such planet changing magnitude as global warming. Evolution doesn't work at the level of an entire species. We will just keep fighting over a decreasingly smaller portion of an ever more poisoned pie. Future generations will have to adapt to the mess and destruction we are making. 

There simply aren't enough people who want to make the world a better place and are willing to make the sacrifices to their lives to make a difference.

If there is anyone in the future to read this, I apologise for our carbon crimes. But if it is any consolation, we did have great time. UK to Barcelona for £5 return - Eee, them were't days!