Climate Solutions

We environmentalists have to evolve our storytelling if we want the media to help. Their audience wants:

What’s in it for me or my family?

1. Save money at home or work

2. Start something exciting or a new business

(3. Help the planet)

Tell me something I don’t know

Examples:

1. Texas is the wind power capital of the USA
2. Americans bought 300,000 electric cars in 2018
3. The Empire State building saves $4.4 million a year with clean energy systems
4. People in cold climates no longer need furnaces
5. People in hot climates just need tiny cooling systems
6. Making power from wind-solar-storage now costs less than gas and coal
7. The largest American corporations do not buy power from utilities
8. Companies big and small are getting rich on clean energy
9. 75% of Americans support clean energy
10. Wind technician and solar installer are the top jobs available in the USA
11. What national governments say about climate change is mostly meaningless
12. Fighting pipelines, plastic in the ocean, vegetarian eating, even recycling have limited impact on our most serious climate problems

Tell me “How-to”

Examples:

1. Three things any citizen can do to make a real difference or impact
2. One thing any company can do that pays for itself in the first year and cuts greenhouse gas
3. The two most important things governments should be doing
4. Success stories about new clean energy businesses and brands
5. Success stories about clean energy helping communities or the disadvantaged
6. How to buy an electric car
7. How to reduce my energy bill at home by 50% – 80%

Don’t preach.

Don’t talk endlessly about doom, gloom, fires, floods, melting glaciers, but when they are mentioned, media should link them properly to climate change.

Talk about solutions, priorities & success stories.