Hear/Say

I wrote a paper for my POLI SCI/COM 411 class on climate change and communicating about the issues at stake. It was a surprisingly fun paper to write… anyway, after my complete depression about the topic, actually articulating what we learned helped me see solutions as accessible and valid. Consumer activism, in particular. Just thought I’d share…

“… 33 percent of Americans said they had rewarded companies that are taking action to reduce global warming by buying their products, while 24 percent said they had punished companies opposing steps to reduce global warming by boycotting their products. Importantly, 48 percent – nearly half of the country – said they are willing to reward or punish companies for their climate change-related activities over the next 12 months, a potentially dramatic increase in consumer pressure on companies to act” (Leiserowitz et. al 7).

Consumer activism would also serve to alleviate the danger of fracturing environmental efforts. Rather than spreading resources thinly to cover rainforests, damming, and recycling advocacy, consumer activism would consolidate efforts through individual’s every-day, personal behavior on the behalf of the greater good of Earth. It would also force company objectives to represent the higher values of their consumers, thus also indirectly supporting the response of legislation to climate change. An information service that would solidify this strategy would be an information database ranking each company in terms of their environmentally friendly practices. They can be ranked by a multitude of criteria, from energy consumption due to production, recycling efforts, or the amount or impact of their environmentally controversial activities. While such a list exists for Newsweek (Newsweek), it would be advisable for the government to invest in these rankings to maintain distance and objectivity, as Newsweek is a for-profit organization:

“The primary barrier preventing most Americans from punishing companies that oppose action on climate change was simply knowledge: 68 percent said they did not know which companies to punish. Again, translating this willingness to reward or punish companies into concrete consumer behavior will largely depend on the success or failure of efforts to educate, organize, and mobilize this large and growing market force” (Leiserowitz et. al 7).

A belated Earth Day post, and well wishes and hopes to the recent catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf.

Graceee

Leiserowitz, Anthony. Maibach, Edward. Roser-Renouf, Connie.“Climate Change in American Minds”. Yale Project on Climate Change and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. 24 April 2010.

“2009 Green Rankings for US Companies – Newsweek.com.” 2009 Green Rankings for US Companies – Newsweek.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2010. <http://greenrankings.newsweek.com/>.