Comments on: Communicating Energy Descent …. Your Thoughts?

By: Ted Howard

Ted Howard — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 05:14:29 +0000

Derrick Jensen's slogan works for me:

Dismantle globally Rebuild Locally!

By: Nicholas Harvey

Nicholas Harvey — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 19:34:45 +0000

‘Live more consume less’

By: Jason Cole

Jason Cole — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 16:45:01 +0000

“The Party’s Over”, with the image of William Hague holding a petrol pump to his head….

By: Donna Jones

Donna Jones — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 19:40:18 +0000

Sustainable Totnes – What’s in it for you?

Local food, local jobs, a warmer house, cheaper transportation, energy efficiency, more beautiful surroundings…

Everyone wins!

participate@sustainabletotnes.com

By: nulinegvgv

nulinegvgv — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 16:59:14 +0000

Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want but the realization of what you already have.

By: Joanne Poyourow

Joanne Poyourow — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 23:20:02 +0000

Here in Media Central (Los Angeles) I am painfully aware of how the peak oil message doesn’t fit neatly into a sound-bite. And, in this sprawling metropolis, there is no such thing as a “main billboard.�? Perhaps I’d go for every bus bench, plus the side of every bus in town.

My version is quite U.S.-centric, but after all, that’s where I’m working – at the heart of what David Holmgren called “… the billion or so middle-class people across the planet who, more than the numerically few rich, consume the vast bulk of the planet’s resources.�?

I went for visual impact, rather than pure text. Starting with the classic “Gone With the Wind” movie logo, and borrowing a sunset-backdropped oil well image from the State of Texas’ website, it would announce “Re-Think the American Dream”. That would be followed by a local website which offered action steps people could take.

You can view my humble attempts at image-crafting via http://legacyla.net/transformation/?p=153

By: Graham Strouts

Graham Strouts — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:36:10 +0000

“Peak Oil will end Globalisation.
Localisation starts here”

By: Davie

Davie — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 13:55:17 +0000

That is a very good question Rob. As a movement we have, in some ways, failed to engage the mainstream in a way that isn’t preachy.

I think that the recent Chevron ads have been effective in getting people to begin to think about the issue of peak oil. I saw a great one in New York airport, below the 10 or so screens with departure information was a huge billboard. It simply said…

“Exactly 0% of passenger jets can be
fueled by wind, solar or nuclear energy. So what’s the alternative?” willyoujoinus.com

Richard Heinburg met the creator of the Chevron’s PR campaign at some gathering recently, the guy had just retired. Richard like a lot of us wanted to know if Chevron were aware of the Peak Oil concept, as its not really mentioned on their ‘will you join us’ site. He was told they were well briefed on peak and this is the motivation behind the ads.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 13:04:07 +0000

Whilst driving through New Zealand last year we saw a black poster with white writing saying “you’re 10 minutes late” – nothing more.

We were immediately intrigued, wondering what this enigmatic statement might be referring to…

A couple of miles later another one said “you speed up a little”…

A few more miles: “you’re going to miss your meeting”…

Then: “you start taking bigger risks”…

“You’re in an accident”…

“It takes 34 minutes for the ambulance to arrive”

“Ambulance ride: 41 minutes”

“Surgery: 8 hours”

“Recovery in hospital: 8 months”

“Back to work: one year”

“All because you were 10 minutes late”

If you had the billboard in Totnes for a year, you could put up a different poster each month, so the energy descent message unfolds over time, each one leaving a little “cliff-hanger” to keep people interested in what’s coming next. You could even tie the messages in to the time of year for additional resonance. So, for example, the one in January is about heating bills, the one july about climate change and the one in August is about flying.

Using a this method would probably mean that one-off visitors to Totnes wouldn’t get it, but the permanent community of Totnes would. However, my feeling is that the topic of energy descent doesn’t lend itself to one-off, soundbite, say-it-all-in-one-image type of communication very easily; it is a very easy message to dilute for the sake of brevity, confuse with “traditional” environmentalism that people find easy to dismiss as preachy, or marginalise by sounding too extreme. For this reason I think it would be worth trying to convey the message accurately to the permenent residents of Totnes rather than inaccurately to everyone who passes through.

By: Mark Jenkin

Mark Jenkin — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 09:29:52 +0000

I think it would have to be something that people immediately relate to. If you start to use phrases like “Greenland Ice Sheet” or “Peak Oil” then most folks won’t be fascinated or even interested to find out more.
( I suppose we could say “David Beckham visits Greenland Ice Sheet – while it is still there” Becks reports >)

So I thought about showing a spoof utility-bill which we all recognise.
Instead of:
Electricity 200KWh £30.00 Debit
Gas 285KWh £25.00 Credit etc..

We should have
Gas………….Running Low
Electricity…..Likely to become scarce
Nuclear Power…Far higher price than you think
Conservation….Should do better
Insulation……Inadequate

Then a list of ‘solutions’ off to one side.

That should get people thinking!

Cheers
Mark,