Earth has a branding problem!

June 16, 2017
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Quality, Consequences and the Construction Industrial Complex (part 110) – All IMHO:

We need to stop talking about Climate Change!

The more we talk about climate change the less we talk about the real underlying issues which are IMHO, aggregate human activity leading to pollution and resource depletion.

I am not a tree hugger or a member of the environmental priesthood. I am a concerned world citizen and father who wants his children to have a life free from water, food and energy stress. However, I am starting to believe we are all becoming victims of a massive mis-direction scam. We are talking about climate change when we should be talking about pollution and resource depletion. To put it another way, planet Earth and climate change have a branding problem.

I believe this is a risk management issue for everyone. The issues are in a nested, interconnected hierarchy that goes something like this:

For me, climate change is an emergent property of pollution and resource depletion which in turn are emergent properties of agregate human activity. If you think this does not affect you, then think again, because in this interconnected world, the emergent properties of pollution and resource depletion are water, food and energy stress.

Branding these issues under “climate Change” is a mistake IMHO. It is hard for people to visualize climate change as an issue. It is such a huge, nebulas thing, people struggle to accept it. We confuse climate with weather and the concept of climate change can impinge on religious beliefs due to its massive scale and heaven like attributes. Religious books are replete with tales of weather phenomena bringing famine, pestilence and floods. Once religious belief comes into play it can then become a tribal game of them Vs us. Take the USA for example. Looking in from the outside, the difference of opinion on climate change has devolved to some degree, along christian fundamentalism and political party lines. Once this happens all that follows are arguments about who is right and no action.

Maybe this is Al Gores fault? He did not mean to be malicious and I truly believe he meant well and frankly, I believe him. However as his message of climate change came from a political figure perceived to be looking for a new career maybe the massage and branding were off? Where was Don Draper from Mad Men when you needed him?

Lets think about climate change differently and re-brand it around objective things we can actually see and agree on.

There are a lot of humans – 7.5 Billion at 2017 (source: wikipedia.org so it must be correct!)
World population is forecast to reach between 8.3 and 10.5 Billion by 2015 (source: wikipedia.org so it must also be correct!)
Oil and gas exploration create environmental and pollution problems (think oil spills and gas explosions). I am not against these fuels, they are vital to our current economic well being. I am against the idea that oil and gas are our only future, they are not.
Pollution kills people every day, why is this acceptable? (see this post by Arnold Schwarzenegger https://www.facebook.com/notes/arnold-schwarzenegger/i-dont-give-a-if-we-agree-about-climate-change/10153855713574658?fref=nf )
Ocean pollution and over fishing are depleting one of our main food sources.
Ocean pollution is real e.g. the great pacific garbage patch, which is estimated, on the low side, to be the size of Texas! ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch )

Do you think 7.5 to 10 Billion humans all wanting clean water, clean food, safe accommodation and a car is sustainable given the current levels of pollution and resource depletion? Do you think oil and gas are our future? Look past climate change, for me, there are not enough words in the English language to express how little I care if you agree with climate change or not. What I care about are my and your children’s future. I care about the environment, ocean pollution, ocean acidification, ocean over salination and the growing levels of water, food and energy stress world wide.

What to do?

If it triggers you, stop thinking and talking about climate change. Instead, think about pollution and resource depletion, think about your children.
Accept that we are all interconnected on this planet, the oceans touch us all and we all want food from them.
Open your eyes and mind to what is happening and stop watching politicians argue about climate change. It is a bit like watching two bald men argue over a hair brush!

More than anything, we should stop looking to politicians to solve our problems and in particular, this problem. They will not, there is nothing in it for them as this is a long term issue. We all have the power to effect change, our power is in what we spend our money on and chose to do. Consumer disobidience is real power, because it scales, it is aggregate and business plus politicians have to react to it.

Take the nightmare issue of plastic water bottles i.e. high energy & water consuming to produce and their polluting retention in oceans and landfill for hundreds of years. We could change this problem in short order if we all stoped buying water in plastic bottles. This does not take any politics, just informed consumer choice. If I was Bill Gates (he has the money) I would buy 10 years advertising space at peak time worldwide, with the following picture. The advertisement would ask just two questions:

Why are you contributing to this?
Who is going to fix this?

I am fed up with seeing politicians argue about climate change as a way IMHO, to avoid dealing with the difficult real issues. We let them do this to us. Therefore my call to action is this, take responsibility for getting your “own house” in order. Do what you can to solve this problem, start by not buy plastic bottled products.

I feel better having got that of my chest.

Twitter: @BLDWhisperer

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