The Strategy and Language of the Gas Stove Culture Wars So you want to “ban” gas stoves? A firestorm erupted in January over the pollution of gas stoves. As climate activists, we reacted without a solid strategy and without testing the language we are using. Consequently, we may lose [...]
Almost every climate message can be made better. While we are admonished to not make perfect the enemy of good, climate messages are often lacking and ineffective despite our best intentions. We can and must do better if we want to save ourselves and preserve a habitable earth for [...]
… And We Better Figure It Out Fast As liberals, progressives and climate activists we are busy analyzing and dissecting the new (poorly named) “Inflation Reduction Act” climate bill. Does it contain too many giveaways to fossil fuel companies? Is it enough? How much will it lower our carbon [...]
“We can no longer tolerate Republican’s bankrupt delay on climate.” Do you get an image or feeling on the quality of their delay from this sentence? If we want our ideas to spread, we must use words that create images and feelings and connect them to stories and narratives [...]
“We may not know what lies ahead, but it’s only human to search for it.” – Chevron This is the concluding sentence from a recent Chevron ad I saw. Seems innocuous. It’s lofty and inspirational and would likely slip past, except it raised my “cow waste” detector. Not many [...]
I was in the great Southwest in April. I drove north up 84 toward Las Vegas, New Mexico glad to finally have a 40 mph tailwind. Halfway there, I ran into a tumbleweed storm. Hundreds of dusty rolling aliens flying across the road like some herd of strange frightened [...]
What is the Reconciliation bill, what’s in it, and can we afford it? Once again, the Left and climate champions missed the messaging on the “$3.5T Reconciliation Bill,” and it may be DOA, primarily because of 3 mistakes. The Right didn’t have to spend much effort to do this, [...]
Part V When I became a climate activist, I believed that there must be some phrase or a set of magic words that would get others to see the climate threat and act. Searching for these words was a fool’s errand. I knew words held power. But I was [...]
Part IV I’d like to tell you a story… I called my daughter and said, “Your son is home from the ER now, and he is going to be OK.” Imagine that you are driving in Atlanta rush hour traffic. In the middle lane. Your eight-year-old grandson is in [...]
(originally published July 2020) Part III I am giving testimony to an administrative law judge on the impact of climate change on Minnesota crops, and why we shouldn’t allow a dirty tar sands pipeline to be built in our state. There are three hundred people in the room. To [...]
