Madeleine Bunting is obviously concerned about the complete lack of meaningful action on Climate Change. To this end she has a go at Government and Environmental organisations. Although she mentions 'Stop Climate Chaos' with reference to their wanting to mimic the MPH campaign, she says they have been ineffectual. I can't really disagree with her article but was disappointed she didn't mention CCC. The reason I was disappointed is because she complains no-one is marching to prevent climate catastrophe.
I've just sent a letter to the 'Guardian' letters page, letting them know that CCC is doing what she asked and explained that in the space of 10 months CCC managed to increase numbers marching in London from 1,000 to 10,000, and 100,000 worldwide. I mentioned the forthcoming March in November and invited her to join us.
If other people write into the Guardian letters page, they might publish one of them giving us free advance publicity for November 11th.
Ian.
well spotted
The original article is at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1687197,00.html
"We need brilliant campaigning..."
... and we're going to provide it.
True, it's a shame she didn't mention CCC, but on the other hand, by giving SCC a kick, it might make them sit up more and continue to support our actions.
It was gratifying to hear (from the London meeting minutes) how well the meeting with Ashok went: definitely sounds like they could promote the marches more in future.
A point of order with one of Madeleine Bunting's assertions ("Even more galling, environmentalists saw the hundreds of thousands of development campaigners pouring on to the streets of Edinburgh and the millions who watched Live8 and asked themselves: why can't we match that?"). Well, actually a lot of the people who turned out in Edinburgh were campaigning for various issues, including climate change - although naturally MPH was top of the list. Those watching the telly? Sorry, but they were hardly "campaigners"!
On the other hand, if rock concerts allow you to claim support, then we'll have help in that field in a few months - see my post on the One Earth Concert, set to take place this year.
Finally: also noticed in yesterday's Guardian G2 pages, a mention of the Camp for Climate Action (www.climatecamp.org.uk) - which is encouraging. If only Madeleine had talked to her colleagues! Isn't it extraordinary how some journalists are paid to write columns without doing proper research? :)
The Guardian: "An end to stop campaigns will boost green progres
Joshua Blackburn writing in today's G2
http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/0,,1688254,00.html
How to end stop campaigns - and why?
I spent much of last night thinking about that Guardian article. And here are some of my thoughts:
1. Stop the War brought four times as many people to the streets as MPH - so much for 'stop' slogans never working.
2. Stop Airport Expansion might sound a boring, nagging slogan for our local campaign - I wish Joshua Blackburn could suggest a better, positive one!
3. MPH was supported by Oxfam and Christian Aid. Both are vast international organisations, with a very large financial turnover and the ability to reach out to millioins of people. In terms of organisational strength and money, we will never match them. If they put their weight and money behind a campaign they can do what we cannot. They are putting nothing behind Stop Climate Chaos, as far as I can see. They are badly letting down millions of people who depend on them by ignoring climate change. (I'm an Oxfam supporter and get the Christian Aid newsletter, too, so I know they are raising no awareness amongst their millions of supporters).
4. I have some background in public health campaigning, namely in breastfeeding promotion, and there are very important similarities with climate change campaigning (the WHO estimate that right now lack of breastfeeding kills ten times as many people as climate change, so it's not a minor issue - although climate change will soon overtake it as a leading cause of death). Like environmentally destructive lifestyles, lifestyles which undermine public health are also rooted in culture, and public health campaigns generally aim to change that culture. As far as breastfeeding advocacy is concerned, 'positive marketing' has been used for decades to reduce artificial feeding of babies. We know that positive campaigning ('Something to be proud off') is more POPULAR than negative campaigning ('Not breastfeeding might harm your baby'). There is no evidence whatsoever that it is more effective, or effective at all. Indeed, US campaigners have decided to try negative mrketing recently - I'll be interested to see how they get on!
5. What DOES work for public health campaigns, and for changing culture and people's individual decisions are legal restrictions on bad marketing (ban on advertising tobacco - or on advertising flights and SUVs?) and commercial practices, good, knowledgeable support (for us, showing people exactly how they can reduce their carbon footprint, once they have chosen to do so), and enforceable targets. All the success in public health campaigning came about where campaigners made a strong ethical point that policies which were killing people had to stop, and where they reached national and international agreements against those policies.
6. The RSPB use exactly the approach the Gurdian author advocates: Tell people how serious climate change is, give them simple actions they can take, make it all sound positive. They are really trying very hard to make SCC work. They still struggle to get the message through to their own supporters. Even their positive steps are only formally supported by a tiny proportion of their members.
7. If I wasn't aware of climate change, I would be booking a flight tomorrow to see a good friend in Australia. I would be much happier to feel able to fly and see more of the world. The decision to stop flying is not a happy positive one, and I don't know how to sell it the way one sells Fairtrade Chocolate!
Okay, we need to be more effective. We must not assume that by telling people half-truths, sending out positive messages, getting rid of 'stop' messages, using marketing experts we will necessarily be more successful. Look to public health. Things don't always work out the way marketing experts predict, and changing culture is not a science you can apply. Selling tasty chocolate with a good conscience is easier than what we need to do.
Almuth