Demands of the Discovery gunman?

Romenesko is reporting that the gunman inside Discovery Communications is James Lee and he is making the following demands (although these are not confirmed to him as of yet):

The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:

1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution. A game show format contest would be in order. Perhaps also forums of leading scientists who understand and agree with the Malthus-Darwin science and the problem of human overpopulation. Do both. Do all until something WORKS and the natural world starts improving and human civilization building STOPS and is reversed! MAKE IT INTERESTING SO PEOPLE WATCH AND APPLY SOLUTIONS!!!!

2. All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.

3. All programs promoting War and the technology behind those must cease. There is no sense in advertising weapons of mass-destruction anymore. Instead, talk about ways to disassemble civilization and concentrate the message in finding SOLUTIONS to solving global military mechanized conflict. Again, solutions solutions instead of just repeating the same old wars with newer weapons. Also, keep out the fraudulent peace movements. They are liars and fakes and had no real intention of ending the wars. ALL OF THEM ARE FAKE! On one hand, they claim they want the wars to end, on the other, they are demanding the human population increase. World War II had 2 Billion humans and after that war, the people decided that tripling the population would assure peace. WTF??? STUPIDITY! MORE HUMANS EQUALS MORE WAR!

4. Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed. Broadcast this message until the pollution in the planet is reversed and the human population goes down! This is your obligation. If you think it isn't, then get hell off the planet! Breathe Oil! It is the moral obligation of everyone living otherwise what good are they??

5. Immigration: Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that. Find solutions to stopping it. Call for people in the world to develop solutions to stop it completely and permanently. Find solutions FOR these countries so they stop sending their breeding populations to the US and the world to seek jobs and therefore breed more unwanted pollution babies. FIND SOLUTIONS FOR THEM TO STOP THEIR HUMAN GROWTH AND THE EXPORTATION OF THAT DISGUSTING FILTH! (The first world is feeding the population growth of the Third World and those human families are going to where the food is! They must stop procreating new humans looking for nonexistant jobs!)

6. Find solutions for Global Warming, Automotive pollution, International Trade, factory pollution, and the whole blasted human economy. Find ways so that people don't build more housing pollution which destroys the environment to make way for more human filth! Find solutions so that people stop breeding as well as stopping using Oil in order to REVERSE Global warming and the destruction of the planet!

7. Develop shows that mention the Malthusian sciences about how food production leads to the overpopulation of the Human race. Talk about Evolution. Talk about Malthus and Darwin until it sinks into the stupid people's brains until they get it!!

8. Saving the Planet means saving what's left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies! You're the media, you can reach enough people. It's your resposibility because you reach so many minds!!!

9. Develop shows that will correct and dismantle the dangerous US world economy. Find solutions for their disasterous Ponzi-Casino economy before they take the world to another nuclear war.

10. Stop all shows glorifying human birthing on all your channels and on TLC. Stop Future Weapons shows or replace the dialogue condemning the people behind these developments so that the shows become exposes rather than advertisements of Arms sales and development!

11. You're also going to find solutions for unemployment and housing. All these unemployed people makes me think the US is headed toward more war.

Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what's left of the planet with their false morals and breeding culture.

For every human born, ACRES of wildlife forests must be turned into farmland in order to feed that new addition over the course of 60 to 100 YEARS of that new human's lifespan! THIS IS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FOREST CREATURES!!!! All human procreation and farming must cease!

It is the responsiblity of everyone to preserve the planet they live on by not breeding any more children who will continue their filthy practices. Children represent FUTURE catastrophic pollution whereas their parents are current pollution. NO MORE BABIES! Population growth is a real crisis. Even one child born in the US will use 30 to a thousand times more resources than a Third World child. It's like a couple are having 30 babies even though it's just one! If the US goes in this direction maybe other countries will too!

Also, war must be halted. Not because it's morally wrong, but because of the catastrophic environmental damage modern weapons cause to other creatures. FIND SOLUTIONS JUST LIKE THE BOOK SAYS! Humans are supposed to be inventive. INVENT, DAMN YOU!!

The world needs TV shows that DEVELOP solutions to the problems that humans are causing, not stupify the people into destroying the world. Not encouraging them to breed more environmentally harmful humans.

Saving the environment and the remaning species diversity of the planet is now your mindset. Nothing is more important than saving them. The Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels.

The humans? The planet does not need humans.

You MUST KNOW the human population is behind all the pollution and problems in the world, and YET you encourage the exact opposite instead of discouraging human growth and procreation. Surely you MUST ALREADY KNOW this!

I want Discovery Communications to broadcast on their channels to the world their new program lineup and I want proof they are doing so. I want the new shows started by asking the public for inventive solution ideas to save the planet and the remaining wildlife on it.

These are the demands and sayings of Lee.

Environmental campaigners ignore identity at their peril

By ignoring the role that identity plays in individual responses to green messaging, environmental campaigners could strengthen aspects of identity that are antagonistic to pro-environmental concerns and behaviors. That cautionary message comes from an article by Tom Crompton and Tim Kasser in the July-August issue of Environment Magazine titled Human Identity: A Missing Link in Environmental Campaigning.

Among the potential pitfalls identified by the authors are:

1. Focusing on financial self-interest or social status as reasons for engaging in pro-environmental behavior could strengthen the values of consumerism and materialism which are antithetical to a fully green lifestyle.
2. Singling out SUVs for disapproval could send the signal to non-SUV owners that they don’t need to make any changes in their driving habits.

Those are but two problems that the authors say could be avoided if communicators take into account identity when formulating their messages. The conclusion states:

Ultimately, there may need to be an inversion of the raison d'être of many environmental groups. That is, rather than asking: “How can we marshal the widest range of interest groups to support the environmental cause?”, they might come to ask, “How can we best build on our natural support base, and our natural areas of political influence, to support campaigns that promote socially and environmentally helpful aspects of identity, and to change institutions and policies that promote problematic aspects of identity?”

As an interesting side note, this paper’s introduction claims that the empirical literature does not lend clear support to the argument that simple pro-environmental behavioral changes “spill over” into more difficult and significant changes. That’s a contradiction of the post that I wrote last week titled: Can small changes lead to big ones? Their citation for that claim was a paper by John Th⊘gersen and Tom Crompton titled “Simple and Painless? The Limitations of Spillover in Environmental Campaigning,” that was published in the Journal of Consumer Policy. I plan to read that soon and blog about it here. Have any thoughts on the topic? Leave your comment below or send me a message.

This week in Green Communications & PR

Every week I Tweet and share dozens of links to content on green advertising, media, communications and public relations. If you want those links in real time, just follow me on Twitter and/or subscribe to my shared items on Google Reader.

I had a big event Tuesday which you can read about from the links on my Twitter feed or my company’s cellulosic ethanol blog. But there was a lot of great content out there and I managed to get to a fair amount of it. Here are the links for the week:

Advertising:

Greens need to be more creative

Hey, Kaco New Energy, Schuco, Solar World, and Yingli Solar! You're all on my list! ...in a good way.

Media:

Columbia Journalism Review: Most media do okay with climate change, Russia’s blazing summer, Asia super-monsoon rains, Greenland’s busted glacier

The Weather Channel's Stu Ostro talks weather-climate links

They Might Be Giants Sing "Electric Car": an Anthem for EVs (Video)

Weekly Mulch: Green Daydreams? A Clean Gulf, Energy Efficiency, and More

Public Opinion:

Americans Divided About Future Gulf Drilling

Bill McKibben on 10/10/10

Can Energy Sector Workers Serve as Influential Public Ambassadors?

Can small changes lead to big ones?

GM’s attractive leasing terms for the Volt won’t be enough

Grandeur of Delusions: Thoughts on the Public Perceptions of Energy Consumption and Savings Study

The Gulf of Perception

Public Relations:

Free range family farm raises cage-free chickens

My Top Five Sustainability / CSR Communication Examples

Social Media:

Sustainable urban campground to be crowd-funded & managed

The Ultimate Guide To Green Guest Blogging

Stakeholder Engagement:

Conservation International and Major Corporations in Brazil Launch Joint Biodiversity Initiative

General Mills Commits to Sourcing Sustainable Palm Oil

Can small changes lead to big ones?

How can people be convinced to significantly green their lives? To make the big changes needed to conserve natural resources and decrease energy use?

Robert B. Cialdini may have something to suggest. Cialdini' is the author of Influence and I’ve been reading his follow-up book Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. Each of the 50 ways is given its own chapter in the easy to read book and number 14 is titled: “How can one small step help your influence take a giant leap?”

This chapter tells the story of two social science researchers posing as the Road Traffic Safety Committee and their quest to get homeowners to place “a large, unsightly sign measuring six feet by three feet and stating DRIVE CAREFULLY on [their] front lawn.” Unsurprisingly, only 17 percent in the “posh neighborhood” agreed to place the sign in their yard. But what was astonishing was that the researchers were able to increase that rate to 76 percent among a similar group “simply by making one seemingly insignificant addition to their request.” From page 65 of the book:

A different research assistant approached this separate group of residents two weeks prior to this burdensome request and asked them if they’d be willing to display a very small, relatively inconspicuous sign in their window that read BE A SAFE DRIVER. Because it was such a small request, almost all of these residents agreed. Two weeks later, when someone else came to their home and asked them if they’d be willing to place the large billboard on their otherwise perfectly manicured lawn, they were much more inclined to agree.

The researchers found that agreeing to the small request caused the homeowners “to see themselves as committed to worthy causes, such as safe driving.” With their identity slightly altered, they were almost five times as likely to agree to the much larger sign.

What’s the lesson for green communicators? There are those in the environmental community who dismiss things like compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and recycling as nice, but relatively insignificant in light of the greater changes society needs to make. But against the backdrop of this research, those small steps could be seen as the first steps that lead individuals to a greener identify and prepare them to make larger changes that benefit the environment. Just like the small sign led to the big one, the CFL could lead to FFV or the home solar water heater.

I’ve seen this in my personal life. My interest in the environmental movement started with communications consulting for wind and biofuels companies. That led me to be more intentional about recycling and to start composting. One day, I swapped all my incandescent bulbs for CFLs. These small changes helped to educate me and led me to do more. When a water-heater needed replacing, I went with the tankless that cost more but used far less energy. Then, I replaced water-guzzling appliances with low-flow shower-heads, high-efficiency toilets and an ENERGY STAR dishwasher and washing machine.

What will I do next? I can’t say for sure, but I’m looking. Got any ideas?

Greens need to be more creative

Environmentalists have to be more creative if they want to convince people to make more environmentally-friendly decisions. That’s the message from green marketing agency EcoAlign in the first of a series of “creative briefs” released this month.

In this first brief, EcoAlign asked six artists (three from the U.S. and three from other countries) to create an original image of the “tree of life.” The diverse images can be licensed from EcoAlign with proceeds benefitting the National Forest Foundation and Groundswell International.

I work much more often with words than images, but I like EcoAlign’s approach. Their marketing strategy is clearly to give away content (like their EcoPinion surveys that I read and saved) and gain the links, tweets and other buzz that comes with it. Integrating the two non-profits was a nice touch.

I’ll certainly be looking forward to reading the other briefs. As I’ve said on this blog repeatedly, environmental communicators need to do better. These briefs could be an important contribution to that improvement.

This week in Green Communications & PR

Every week I Tweet and share dozens of links to content on green advertising, media, communications and public relations. If you want those links in real time, just follow me on Twitter and/or subscribe to my shared items on Google Reader. It’s a short list this week because I was on vacation and unplugged for much of it, but here are the links:

Branding:

10 Ways to Make Green Relevant to the Mainstream

Brands in a New Age of Responsibility – Jez Frampton, Interbrand

Media:

OpenIDEO

Tweeting a Green Newspaper

Opinion Research:

In Going Solar, Americans Cite Cost Savings Over Environmental Benefits

A Daily newspaper from green journalist tweets

A while ago I developed two lists to track green communicators and green journalists on Twitter. Both have become fairly popular with each having more than 100 followers.

I just used a new service called Paper.li to create daily newspapers based on the links from both lists: green journalists and green communicators. Read more on my post at the Inspired Economist.

This week in Green Communications & PR

Every week I Tweet and share dozens of links to content on green advertising, media, communications and public relations. If you want those links in real time, just follow me on Twitter and/or subscribe to my shared items on Google Reader. Here are the links for this week:

Advertising:

Are Green Marketers Selling Their Souls?

BMW Banned from Claiming Zero Emission EV’s

Eco Marketing Trends: Green Marketing Done Right (PDF)

Lexus: the Darker Side of Climate Denial

Opinion Research:

Corporation or Consumer: Who’s Driving Us toward Sustainability?

Green Living Pulse is out tomorrow

Special Journal Issue Examines Science Communication in Environmental Controversies

Public Affairs:

Dems turn focus to GOP Senate contenders as latest 'BP Republicans'

Greens Debating Tactics Instead of Ideas

Public Relations:

Filling the Science Communication Gap

Is It Hot in Here? Must Be Global Warming

Oil spill mars UC Berkeley's BP-funded research

Sustainable Industries Webinar – Beyond The Eco-Label

Walmart Releases Its Roadmap to GHG Accounting

What will be the top 5 issues for 2011?

What will be the top 5 issues for 2011?

A few weeks ago, I was invited to participate in the 7 Green Bloggers series at Planetsave by identifying what I believed was the Top Environmental Stories of the Year, Other than BP Oil Spill. For me, the top story of the year thus far was:

The decline in public concern for the environment that occurred while environmental news and communications were at an all-time high. Mainstream media coverage of the environment peaked late last year during COP15 and this year with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. But rather than increase the concern that Americans hold for the environment, it appears to have had the opposite effect.

You'll have to go to Planetsave to read my full response. A few days later, seven green bloggers were asked to pull out their crystal ball and identify what they thought would be the top stories of the rest of the year.

Now, I have been asked by a publication that covers sustainability and communications to look a little further into the future and identify the five most important issues I expect to be working on next year. As a panelist for this issue, I have also been asked to identify "sustainability leaders" for the rest of the panel to vote on. I've got a few ideas on both, but wanted to ask my readers for input. What issues will be big next year? Who will lead them? Leave your comments below or message me on Twitter @nathanschock.

Can solar displace oil?

This morning I put up a new post at The Inspired Economist about this ad:



I asked this question:

Should solar companies advertise their energy as an alternative to oil or stick to coal? Does it confuse? Does it matter?

Read the entire post and let me know what you think.

World Cup Hangover

No. I'm not talking about myself. Although I am always sad when the greatest sporting event in the world comes to an end. I'm not talking about the Dutch, who are now 0-3 in World Cup Finals. I'm also not talking about the Spanish but I'm sure they will have hangovers when if they stop partying.

To see who I'm talking about, check out my post over on The Inspired Economist. And perhaps the hangover isn't as bad as we thought.

This week in Green Communications & PR

Every week I Tweet and share dozens of links to content on green advertising, media, communications and public relations. If you want those links in real time, just follow me on Twitter and/or subscribe to my shared items on Google Reader. Here are the links for this week:

Advertising:

BP mops up its PR mess, while new Shell ads say, “Let’s go!” But where?

Marketing Junk Food to Kids Could Soon be Illegal

Careers:

Futerra Sustainability Communications Intern

Media:

Climate Panel Struggles With Media Plan

Weekly Mulch: Politics, Power, and the Environment Beyond BP

Opinion Research:

Americans’ Actions to Conserve Energy, Reduce Waste, and Limit Global Warming

CLIMATEGATE, PUBLIC OPINION, AND THE LOSS OF TRUST

Public Relations:

Dow Chemical Standing Apart From Industry on Cap and Trade

Earth First! Activists Arrested Protesting Maine Wind Farm - 'It's Too Big'

How to promote your new hybrid car: host a global warming debate

Opinion: Overpopulation is the Wrong Focus For Environmentalists

Rejected! Can Lack of Environmental Certification Hurt You?

Reframing climate change as a public health issue: an exploratory study of public reactions

Safeway Pulls Plug on Mock Farmers’ Market

Stand By Your Cause: What Marketers Can Learn From Dawn’s Involvement In The Gulf Oil Spill

Walmart 'Surprised' Greenpeace Singled Out Them For Indonesian Rainforest Destruction Criticism

Social Media:

Tapping into the Word of Mouth Power of Green Communities

Uproar at ScienceBlogs.com: Protesting Pepsi’s new nutrition blog, writers defect from respected site

Why Social Media Will Never Let BP Sleep

Toxic Chemicals Lobby: Exclusive Leaked Footage

The Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition uses humor to make a serious point about the use of dangerous chemical in everyday products. Take a look:

They video pokes fun at the chemical industry’s attempts to sway the public, even showing one of the chemical-laced toys reading from the “Big Tobacco Playbook.” Their ultimate goal is getting Congress to update the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, to protect the public from harmful chemicals.

For companies operating in our age of transparency, the only option is to produce products that don’t cause harm. The public is more informed than ever and savvy NGOs can use the web to spread the word far and wide. This video is a great example of that.

Hat tip to Derek Markham of Natural Papa.

Tapping into the Word of Mouth Power of Green Communities

What if there were a vast, green community waiting to adopt new green products and services? A network that gave word of mouth support to green companies, giving them a better shot at marketplace success? Wouldn't that be cool?

Well, according to Richard Seireeni that (primarily digital) network exists and and it played a role in the success of the 23 ecopreneurs he chronicles in The Gort Cloud.

Many of those companies will be familiar to even casual observers of green business: Dr. Bronner's, Nau, Seventh Generation, Tesla Motors, Ben & Jerry's, Stonyfield Farm, Interface, and more. It was while he was researching these ecopreneurs for his book that Seireeni stumbled across this invisible network of green trendspotters, news outlets, search engines, social networks, authors, NGOs and retailers.

Seireeni is a capable storyteller and he's working with some inspiring stories. From the counter-culture that birthed Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap to TerraCycle's plan for worm poop to be the first product on their way to becoming the next Procter & Gamble, and Stonyfield's connection to the family farm, everyone interested in green business will find an inspiring story.

The book is accompanied by a web site that lists all of the profiled companies along with two missing chapters that consist of short profiles that didn’t make the book. The site also lists article penned by Seireeni that makes you wish he was blogging.

Throughout the stories, the Gort Cloud makes cameo appearances, but for me where the book falls a bit short is in detailing exactly how these companies tapped into the power of that community. Did the profiled companies announce their green products and the Gort Cloud dutifully adopted them? Where the CEOs or CMOs active in online green communities prior to starting their companies? It’s not clear.

Despite that shortcoming, this is an excellent book and if you are an aspiring ecopreneur or a promoter of green companies and products, there are a lot of great examples to learn from. The ecopreneurs profiled by Seireeni share many of the marketing tactics that led to their economic success.

If you want to learn how to get your product or company adopted by a green community, I suggest two resources. First is the excellent book Brand Hijack by Alex Wipperfürth. I read this a few years ago and although Wipperfürth doesn’t deal with green brands, he shows how brands like Red Bull, Starbucks and The Blair Witch Project were “hijacked” by loyal communities of advocates on their road to success.

The second, and perhaps best way to learn about the Gort Cloud, is to follow them. To make it easier, I've created a Twitter group composed of the Gort Cloud members mentioned in Seireeni's book who are on the micro-blogging network. But to follow all of them and be able to tap into the power of that vast, green community, you'll need to get your hands on The Gort Cloud. It’s well worth the read.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm @nathanschock.

This week in Green Communications & PR

Every week I Tweet and share dozens of links to content on green advertising, media, communications and public relations. If you want those links in real time, just follow me on Twitter and/or subscribe to my shared items on Google Reader. Here are the links for this week:

Advertising:

Looking Behind the Scenes at Ecolabels' Green Claims

White Paper: Green Marketing, Ninja-Style!

SunChips Turns Environmental Commitment into Brilliant Marketing

Media:

A Tale of Two Climate Change Stories; The Times, the Globe and the ‘Front-Page Thought’

@GreenPRcrap Dedicated to exposing the very best of corporate green and ethical PR crap

Opinion Research:

A National Survey Of News Directors About Climate Change: Preliminary Findings

By not offering incentives, Australia could be best indicator of electric vehicles' real popularity

Eco CEOs Grow Anxious Waiting for Green Consumers

Reflections on American Academy's Report: Do Scientists Understand the Public?

Survey Finds Consumers Still Buying ‘Green’ Products

Public Relations:

BP Has Us Over a Barrel

Finding the Right Expert

Fracked tap water in Texas is 99% PR spin

If I missed any good ones, post them in the comments below.