One of the biggest hurdles we face in solving the climate crisis is getting people to change their behavior in order to fix it. The following is an idea I developed in order to try and get people to act on alleviating the climate crisis. First a little background.
There is not much programing or advertising about the things that individuals can do to help alleviate climate change. I guess there is just no money in it and partisan gridlock makes it difficult for the government to allocate money for climate education when one of the two major political parties is owned by oil interests.
Even when there are programs or advertising regarding climate change, it is too easy to ignore or not even look at it using todays media avenues. With the internet you may simply click to something that is of more interest to you, and with TV you can change to one of 100 or more channels, mute the audio or fast forward using the DVR. Talk radio is an information avenue that is mostly controlled by the political party controlled by oil interests and so there are not going to be many changed minds among those that listen to it. Newspapers have also either gone out of business or have become partisan so that it has become difficult to disseminate information that everyone should know.
Before the advent of the internet and in the early years of broadcast TV things were a little different. There were four avenues that news was disseminated from during those times. The four were radio, broadcast TV, newspapers and the movie theater. As we are all aware now, things were not so partisan back then. You could pretty much be assured of hearing something resembling the truth no matter which media you heard it from. With regard to movie theaters, there were newsreels before the show began which might inform you about progress in whatever war was currently waging or suggestions on planting a victory garden to aid the war effort.
Back then and especially today, the movie theater is a unique platform from which to disseminate information. That is because it is a medium with a captive audience. An audience member can not turn off the video, mute the audio, change the channel or click on something else. They have to hear what is said and see what is shown short of using a mask and earplugs. This is a tremendous advantage when a large portion of the population is more inclined to stick their head in the sand and refuse to listen to what needs to be done.
So how can that captive time be used to best advantage? At one time I thought it might best be used to educate about the science of climate change but I discovered that most people have a such a poor understanding of science in general, and physics and chemistry specifically, that it was impossible to educate them. Now however, it seems that a majority of people at least believe that climate change is a real issue even if they do not realize its severity. Because of that I think it may be possible to change peoples behavior to some degree as far as what they purchase and how they go about their daily lives. That could have a large impact on reducing greenhouse gases.
I have gone to the theater a couple of times in the last year and even there I was presented with what the latest pharmaceutical drug could do for X, Y or Z during the preshow trailer time. Yeah, there’s money in that I guess for the drug companies, but if the government were to provide funds for “war effort” ads regarding the climate crisis, in the trailer time before a movie starts, I think it would be money well spent.
Ads with high production values could be made for things like walking or riding your bike to work that also addresses the health benefit. Or ads suggesting growing a garden or community garden and how that can not only help the environment and climate but also keep money in your pocket. Maybe an ad suggesting that you consider the packaging for the products you buy as well as the contents. (Products with environmentally friendly packaging or no packaging in the case of produce are frequently cheaper.) Maybe even an ad extolling the virtues of electric vehicles since I find the general populace is brainwashed from all of the negative propaganda.
Of course organizing and finding the money to do something like this is the rub.