Media & climate change – a new approach

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:
- Texas is the wind power capital of the USA
- Americans bought 300,000 electric cars in 2018
- The Empire State building saves $4.4 million a year with clean energy systems
- People in cold climates no longer need furnaces
People in hot climates just need tiny cooling systems
- Making power from wind-solar-storage now costs less than gas and coal
- The largest American corporations do not buy power from utilities
- Companies big and small are getting rich on clean energy
- 75% of Americans support clean energy
- Wind technician and solar installer are the top jobs available in the USA
- What national governments say about climate change is mostly meaningless
- Fighting pipelines, plastic in the ocean, vegetarian eating, even recycling have limited impact on our most serious climate problems
Tell me “How-to”
Examples:
- Three things any citizen can do to make a real difference or impact
- One thing any company can do that pays for itself in the first year and cuts greenhouse gas
The two most important things governments should be doing
- Success stories about new clean energy businesses and brands
- Success stories about clean energy helping communities or the disadvantaged
- How to buy an electric car
- 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.
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