Saving the World…One Spoof at a Time!

This was a good one…The merry pranksters behind the CoalCares.org  site not only had the moxy to add a ™ symbol to their site name, they even had the bravado to use the (genuinely) registered trademark of Peabody Energy as well. Not only were they content to spoof the coal industry’s attempts at better Community Relations, they even linked directly back to Peabody Energy for maximum effect and traceability!

In its shameless contempt for the world’s largest private-sector coal company, this spoof site represents itself as a branding initiative intended to reach out to American youngsters with asthma and to help them “keep their heads high in the face of those who would treat them with less than full dignity”. For kids who have no choice but to use an inhaler, Coal Cares™ lets them inhale with pride!

A Green God Complex?

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that “rules are not necessarily sacred, but good principles are.” Unfortunately, there there seems to be a scarcity of good sacred principals available to sustaining Society through difficult times nowadays, which might explain a rise in Fundamentalism (radical or otherwise) as we search for any unassailable principals to rally around as a Society .

What we see instead, is that our greatest temples are built to represent the power of money and commerce, and the graven images of celebrities that we’ve idolized now seem to hold the place of of demi-gods in many people’s lives. Popular as they may be, these cultural icons make rather poor pillars build the Future upon, no matter how well they might reflect our dreams and aspirations today.

When looking for leadership from the more obvious sources, it almost seems strangely naive to suggest that we simply rely on politicians to step up with clear plans. Much less for the ruling Corporate Elite to offer the leadership required to build a sustainable future for Humanity. So where are our guiding principals coming from in cynically post-modern age?

The True Nature of Contrails

	If you’d like a clear view of what creates Jet Contrails just: Click for Facts…

If you don’t think that jet travel could be playing a major role in either climate change, or modified atmospheric chemistry, then you probably don’t need to dive into this deeper exploration. If however you see Climate Change as an enormous combination of factors, you might find some points of interests below. There is far more at play here than even the most outrageous “Chemetrail Conspiracy” has ever even touched upon.

In our explorations of jet exhaust and ‘vapour contrails‘ and the impact of air travel on our Future Environment, we’ve made previous attempts to speculate upon why certain channels in the Mainstream Media have taken interest in a rather weak Conspiracy Theory like “Chemtrails”, rather than digging into the underlying science of Contrails (and environmental impact of jet exhaust) for a bonefide piece of investigative journalism on a possibly much deeper conspiracy.

If there’s such a thing as covering up an actual conspiracy with weaker, more easily discredited, conspiracy theories, then it’s quite possible that the airline industry knows full well that its altering the stratosphere, and affecting the environment. That the prevalence of “Chemtrail” theories might simply be serving to throw people off the trail by simply associating any negative environmental news about airliners with more easily dismissed “conspiracy theories”. It certainly not as simple as a supposedly well-intentioned geo-engineering initiative.

Global Warming: Who’s the Real Enemy

– SOCIAL REPORT –

	Political strategy is a moving target in any debate, but can we at least be sure that our Leaders have selected the right objectives in their bid to win the battle against Global Warming?

In the ongoing heavy-weight bout against Global Warming, the tag-team proposals for pricing CO2 emissions (primarily either via Taxes or Carbon Cap and Trade) both took serious blows to the head at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference and were allowed to drop to the mat. Rather than standing back up in desperation, and vowing to take the fight into the streets, the proponents of these (so-called) “solutions” seemed content to just hang onto the ropes and wait for the bell to end the Copenhagen round. This event has now fallen apart with little to show for it than promises that things will be settled at the next U.N. Climate Change Conference, that nobody can even be bothered to set their forward sites upon at this point. Hell…Even the Copenhagen Conference website was dismantled less than a month after things wrapped up in Denmark, with little of value being forwarded from the defunct address.  Luckily there are still lots of excellent resources out there to explain the functions and perceived benefits of such complex concepts as Carbon Cap and Trade, for example…

One can’t help feel as though the Post-Copenhagen letdown has left us to either take this fight to a more personal level as the Media moves on to it’s next ‘cause celebre’, or otherwise just allow Human Nature to overtake us, and simply focus on our more immediate needs as we sub-consciously recoil from the unknowns of an uncertain Future.

COP15.dk is History!

MEDIA & IMPACT REPORT:

	The official website for the Copenhagen Climate Conference has been taken down, and traffic is being redirected to : “The Official Website of Denmark”

Near the end of the proceedings at last months U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, news was posted to the official Conference website (COP15.dk) that capturing Carbon Dioxide (CO2) at the source (of industrial emissions) and storing it underground is not likely to become a measure supported by the UN-backed Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) this year. A committee under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has discussed the issue, but delayed any decisions until future summits.

Please don’t bother clicking on the above-mentioned COP15.dk link though, because less than a month after the conclusion of the conference, this newslink is now unavailable, along with all the rest of the COP15.dk website! Instead, all traffic is being directed to “The Official Website of Denmark”.

What we’re left with, as a reference on this historic event less than a month later, is a mere footnote that states: “this page contains a selection of some of the most popular content from Denmark’s Host Country website for UN Climate Change Conference 2009 –  cop15.dk ”

What possible reasons could there be for taking down this official site so quickly? What benefits could possibly be derived from removing this enormous resource? Most importantly, what are the perceived repercussions of such an obviously hasty demise of what should have our greatest reference point on Climate Change at the end of 2009, if not an actual public launchpoint as we move forward through the Post-Copenhagen letdown, and proceed with all the work adn understanding that still needs to be accomplished?

IR: Subtle Effects of Global Warming

IMPACT REPORT: More Subtle Effects of Global Warming

We all know the Earth is warming, but it’s getting harder to get a clear reading on exactly what the causes and effects are of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) because of all the polarized rhetoric in the Media around the “man-made” aspects of this question. Obviously decisive precautionary actions must be taken to immediately reduce greenhouse gases while we sort out the rest of society’s environmental ills, but what if the Science behind AGW has somehow become too skewed by political or funding pressures? What if the need and desire to create a unified and global movement against Climate Change has now also became a leveraged force that can be managed to produce new political alignments, financial vehicles, and world banking results as well? As Environauts, we can start our search for answers by looking at the Present for signs of possible Futures. Let’s begin the process in Copenhagen.

SR: Global Warming is just the Beginning

–  SOCIAL REPORT  –

Recent events around the uber-hyped Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen may be overshadowing the entire Green Movement, and casting a pale pallor of doubt over our entire outlook on the Future of our Environment. The faint silver lining to these looming storm clouds however, is that by now we should all have a much more realistic sense of what we can expect from the political processes and backroom shenanigans involved in addressing Climate Change via the United Nations. What we can also take away from things (after the DanishText leak, and ClimateGate scandals, right-wing Media backlash, etc..) is a more personally resolved understanding of Global Warming, that isn’t dependant on spoon-fed Media pablum for it’s vitality. We might also feel ready to resign any false expectations that we may have placed in the dubious value of Eco-Stunts, Public rallys, citizen marches, internet petitions, and other publicity hungry fabrications built upon good intentions, and amounting to little more than fodder for the Media, and some personal catharsis.

Instead we’re now better prepared to at least accept (if not undertake) an ongoing, and longer-term outlook on the real and genuine grass roots solutions that will be required, long after everyone has flown back home from Denmark and unpacked their souvenirs. Unfortunately, the road map to sustainable change is no less clear now, than it was when we embarked on what we had collectively hoped would’ve been a much more visible and direct route to the more immediate resolutions we’d all hoped for in Copenhagen.

Let’s first consider how we got here, as we re-plot our course towards a more sustainable Future. One where we don’t just wait for politically driven bureaucratic processes to come to the rescue, and somehow reduce one particular (CO2) by-product of an unhealthy civilization. Rather, let’s shelf the idea of simply delegating our environmental responsibilities to representative politicians long enough to consider what would happen if we were to personally hold established Environmental and Ecological principals as our highest standard in forging a better Future for us all

PR Values: Remembering the Brave

In our look at the Social Climate, it has become increasingly clear that unless the Mainstream Media can radically change the way it gathers, presents, and distributes its environmental news and socio-politically relevant information, that we might well need to increasingly turn to alternate (more independent) mediums and channels in order to form and share the kind of progressive Public perceptions and opinions that will be required to reshape our Consumer driven Society for the better…and possibly avoid looming political and environmental debacles as well. The Past certainly holds lessons for us all.

In our zeal to seek out new paradigms and standards for Communications however, we shouldn’t overlook the lessons to be learned from our forebearers. In this case, the enormous power and latent capacity held within the current Media regimes, as well as the immense strides being taken by the ‘old guard’ to advance into a new era of bi-lateral Public Relations with their respective Markets and Audiences. Before moving on to our alternate Channels, we need to take a closer look at those organizations and talented professionals who are not only adopting new Production and Communication methods, but who are also innovating their staid Broadcast-based Media methods to have a greater impact within the much touted realm of Social Media. Some of the methods that the Mainstream Media might yet effectively adapt and evolve into would include radical new approaches to Advertising philosophies, Corporate Sustainability (CSR) efforts, and various new approaches to the many outdated or misguided Public Relations (PR) methods and strategies that we now see encroaching the Social Media space…For better or worse.

On Remembrance Day, what better Corporate objective could there be than to apply new models of Communication in order to honour those who’ve fought and sacrificed for our hard won Freedoms and Liberty. Of course there are many Corporate interests that simply wish to be aligned with such noble ideals, without bringing anything of new value to the table, but we’ll let naturally selective market forces decide who should survive in this Public Relations arena, and simply focus on those who are clear champions of a just cause.

As such, let’s narrow focus on some select PR and CSR professionals who are leading the way towards progressive new modes of communication though, in hope of brighter and safer visions of the Future. Let’s start this series by taking a look at one of the pioneers of progressive PR and now Corporate Sustainability…

A New Mission…

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