It’s too late to “Stop Global Warming.” The fossil fuels we have already burned will be part of Earth’s atmosphere for centuries to come. Even if we stopped all fossil fuel emissions tomorrow, our historical emissions will continue to warm the climate and disrupt ecosystems and agriculture all across the planet. But this would be a good outcome for us, because if we phased out fossil fuels quickly, the rate of warming would be slow enough for our civilization to adapt. Hopefully. Our battle today is to “Stop Runaway Global Warming” because Runaway Global Warming will likely destroy human agriculture, human civilization and perhaps even lead to human extinction. And unfortunately for us, we have already arrived at the tipping point where Global Warming accelerates into Runaway Global Warming.
To win this battle, we need political messages which are easy to understand, easy to explain, and hard to oppose. And by “hard to oppose”, I mean “hard to oppose” from the perspective of the targeted voters of the message. Truly great political messages are even “hard to oppose” from the perspective of average voters who are not the target audience. Here are some examples of effective political messages:
- No New Taxes
- $15 Now
- Repeal Obamacare
- Stop Keystone XL
I have ranked these four messages by their political effectiveness. Think of these as political “Mission Statements.” Without a doubt, “No New Taxes” is the most effective political message of our generation. It is targeted at conservative voters and from this perspective, it is easy to understand, easy to explain, and hard to oppose. And it is so powerful that it is even ‘hard to oppose’ from the perspective of average voters. Because who really wants ‘new taxes?’ This strong message has allowed conservative voters to keep Republican elected officials from raising taxes of any kind for any purpose at any time. For Republican politicians, “No New Taxes” has become a core principle of conservatism. And this principle can NEVER be violated; neither in times of war nor national disaster. This simple powerful message has resulted in far less government spending on health, education, and infrastructure at all levels of government for the past 35 years. And not surprisingly this has caused a sharp decline in both America’s middle class standard of living and America’s economic competiveness. This message has been a hugely effective tool for organizing conservative thought, political strategy, and policies to limit government spending.
The simplicity of “$15 Now” also passes the test of being easy to understand, easy to explain, and hard to oppose from the perspective of the labor movement and liberal voters. It is far more specific (and powerful) than the phrase “Living Wage.” It took the labor movement a while to find this message, but they have been getting great traction out of it lately. It has allowed them to organize their political thoughts and political strategies to reach sympathetic voters and politicians. As a result, municipalities such as Los Angeles are now increasing their minimum wage to $15 per hour. And many more states and cities are raising their minimum wages (if not quite up to $15) after many years of stagnation.
For those who despise President Obama and his Democratic policies, “Repeal Obamacare” is also easy to understand, easy to explain, and hard to oppose. The targeted conservative audience for this message fully accepts as truth the many lies conservative media has spread about the Affordable Care Act. From their perspective, this message is an effective tool for conservative voters to organize their political thoughts and strategy. And the result has been NEARLY 100 votes in the House of Representatives to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. (Wouldn’t you like that level of support from the House of Representatives for a price on carbon?)
Last on our list is “Stop Keystone XL.” This message has been very effective among a small group of global warming activists. It has allowed them to organize their political thoughts, messages, and strategy. As a result, the 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate front runners now oppose the Keystone XL pipeline. And President Obama finally, belatedly canceled the permit for the pipeline.
However, “Stop Keystone XL” never spread to a larger audience because it is neither “easy to understand”, nor “easy to explain”. The vast majority of voters don’t follow politics, and for them the first question is, “What the hell is Keystone XL?” And the answer to this simple question requires a complicated discussion about how global warming works and how the Canadian tar sands create more CO2 emissions than conventional oil drilling in places like Saudi Arabia. And from an environmental perspective, why it’s better for America to import oil from the Middle East than from Canada. This is far too complicated for average voters. These people are busy and don’t like politics. If global warming activists want to reach these voters, they need more effective messages. And global warming activists NEED to reach these average voters. Because we must dramatically increase the number of voters who list global warming as their #1 issue if we are to contain the climate crisis.
“Stop Keystone XL” is also narrow in that is applies to just one battle in the climate crisis. Now that Keystone XL is defeated, we will need a brand new message anyway. A broad message which encapsulates ALL our battles in the years ahead. So my suggestion for an effective message is this:
To win the race to contain the climate crisis, we need a political message which can carry us all the way to the finish line.
“Stop Runaway Global Warming!”
Most of our political thoughts, strategies, and policies can be organized around this simple phrase. It is easy to understand, easy to explain, and hard to oppose. But even more, this message contains THREE very ominous sub-messages. First, and foremost, “If we keep burning fossil fuels, Global Warming will be VERY BAD.” The word Runaway conveys this key point. Second, this message concedes that it is too late to “Stop Global Warming” which is already upon us. And third, this message implies that powerful political forces WANT Runaway Global Warming to happen. These three unsettling sub-messages convey the urgency with which we must confront the climate crisis. Which is something we have yet to convey to the broad American electorate.
Now, we all know the fossil fuel industry and conservative media have spent MILLIONS of dollars waging a successful disinformation campaign portraying “Global Warming” as a vague distant future phenomenon. And going forward, global warming activists will still be GREATLY outspent by the fossil fuel industry. But we should not despair, because we can craft effective messages that travel far by word of mouth. And, become more powerful than anything cooked up by the consultants on the payroll of Big Carbon.
Simply adding the word “Runaway” to our message also trips up Big Carbon’s strongest argument against containing the climate crisis. Listen to this:
“Stop Runaway Global Warming!”
“But. . . but . . . but . . .but what about . . . . . . . jobs?”
The word “Runaway” absolutely trounces the word “Jobs” because “Runaway” delivers a strong dose of FEAR to the audience. And fear is POLITICALLY clarifying because it forces voters to quickly choose sides. With fear, you don’t think about your political choice, you simply FEEL it. You’re either for “Runaway Global Warming” or you’re not. You’re either for Willie Horton getting furloughed out of prison or you’re not. You’re either for that atomic bomb explosion in the famous Daisy ad, or you’re not. Fear is simple which is why it is so powerful in politics.
And finally, this element of fear may allow our message to expand far beyond our target audience of global warming activists and voters. Because who really WANTS Runaway Global Warming? No one. Expect those on the direct or indirect payroll of the fossil fuel industry. Again, this forces voters to quickly choose sides and quickly identify just “who” is on the “other” side. And if our message allows most voters to separate themselves from the fossil fuel industry and the Climate Deniers in Congress, we can win the political power we need to “Stop Runaway Global Warming!”