Despite wildfires, droughts, floods, hurricanes, and other disasters getting more deadly and killing increasing numbers of people every year, we keep making the climate worse instead of better. How do we stop that? What can we do? We need the almighty dollar to talk and we need Madison Avenue to tell it what to say.
If slick, persuasive, Madison-Avenue-style advertising tells homeowners and building owners that roofs with solar panels provide cheaper, more reliable energy that, incidentally, prevents climate-caused tragedy, Americans will install solar. If Madison Avenue advertises to food buyers and food producers that food produced with weathering fertilizer is healthier and cheaper than food grown with old-style fertilizer and that, incidentally, it might save life on Earth, then buyers will buy such foods and food producers will produce them. (Weathering fertilizer, which may come from crushed calcium-based rock, draws carbon down from the air, producing calcium carbonate materials that stay out of the atmosphere, decreasing the amount of heating of the planet.) There are many other things Madison Avenue can do, for example advertising for heat pumps, electric cars, electric stoves, ovens, water heaters, and food from farmers who practice regenerative agriculture, as well as advertising for more energy efficient windows, doors, and outer-wall insulation. There are too many such things to mention, but you get the idea. Madison Avenue is the dollar whisperer. With Government taking very little action to help save life on Earth. Madison Avenue should be whispering in the dollar’s ear to save us from climate disaster. Think how quickly we switched to cell phones and flat-panel televisions and monitors. When the all-mighty dollar talks, people do what it tells them, and they do it quickly. We need that now. Madison Avenue, start whispering in the dollar’s ear.
Yes, I know Madison Avenue as the Almighty Dollar whisperer is a cute metaphor that might make some sense, but how does this metaphor achieve results? As someone involved with climate change, I am a member of many climate organizations. These include 350.org, Climate Reality Project, Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL), Renewable Energy World, Climate Change Network, The Nature Conservancy, Earth Justice, and many, many more. All these groups do something to help the climate but what is the sum of the results from these groups? The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere keeps increasing and the world gets hotter. As a contributor to them, it seems to me the major work of these groups is raising money from small donors like me. I propose they should spend their money on advertising to the consumer.
I receive many awful advertisements (not Madison-Avenue quality) from companies that install solar panels, install heat pumps, sell electric stoves, and electric water heaters, etc. Personally, I ignore most of these ads because they are from companies that profit from whatever they can sell me. I don't trust them. However, if The Climate Reality Project, 350.org, or other major climate organizations sent me Madison-Avenue-quality documents explaining to me which solar roof companies are best, what to buy from them, how much it costs, and how it benefits me and the planet, I’d believe them and spend my money. I am not alone. Most consumers feel the same way I do. CCL and most of these organizations have been trying to lobby Congress and the White House for years, to no avail. With an obstructionist legislative branch of Government and a denier majority on the Supreme Court, continuing what they have been doing makes no sense. Instead, we should use Madison Avenue to change the buying habits of consumers to purchase top-quality products they need that, incidentally, help the planet. Today, that is the best way to mitigate climate disaster.
Who am I? Why am I writing this? I have recently finished a powerful global warming novel as part of my personal war against the climate crisis. Please help. Friend me on Facebook, Follow me on Twitter, and connect with me on LinkedIn. I need a great literary agent and a great publishing company to market the novel and print a lot of copies. Agents and publishers look at an author's social media numbers as a sign of potential buyers. So please Friend me, Follow me, and Connect with me, and comment on what I post. Consider it as doing a small part in saving humanity from the ravages of global warming. Thanks.
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