By Ann Barlow, GreenPepper
Almost every day, the New York Times has at least one news item related to the environment – usually more. But yesterday, I was struck by the fact that there were two such stories on the front page, and a third on the front page of Business Day. On the front page was an article about how China is reducing emissions from coal plants by employing new technology. Alongside that news story was another about a video that is making its way through schools as a tool to teach about how our consumption contributes to the earth’s deterioration. The third article was about venture capital investments in energy efficiency technology.
These stories’ presence, so prominent and in such numbers (there were more stories off the front pages), makes me believe that discussion around the environment is becoming mainstream. Of course, there are plenty who still cling to the idea that all this emphasis on the environment is just a fad. But most people only have to look around and trust their gut to realize we are taking too much from the earth without replacing it and dumping too much on it that can’t be reused. At the very least, we’re worried about depending on unreliable sources for our energy needs.
Within the next 12 months, I think we’ll talk about global warming the same way we talk about the economy or our health. Some gimmicks and quick fixes will still be part of the conversation (lose 12 pounds of carbon in just 2 weeks!), but most of the discussion will be around real solutions. We PR types won’t focus on our clients’ latest slightly greener packaging of their products but on the company-wide initiatives they are taking to stop contributing to the problem and start contributing to the solution.
When that happens, the news will probably still be front page. After all, there’s a lot to do. But we won’t see the news as specially segmented, green news – just as part of the issues we deal with each day. And that is good news.
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