February 14, 2008
One of the most heartbreaking effects of global warming is the threat it poses to polar bears. With every tenth of a degree that our globe warms, the Arctic, the polars bears’ natural habitat, melts away. According to the World Wildlife Fund, scientists have noted a steady decline in perennial Arctic sea ice of almost ten percent each decade since 1978. They also recorded that in some areas ice has thinned by as much as 32 percent in the last 30-40 years. With ice melting earlier and earlier every year the bears have less of a chance to hunt and store food for the summer and fall when the hibernate. Not only are some bears starving, but many polar bears are actually drowning in the freezing water after being stuck on a piece of ice that has broken away into the sea.
WWF suggests that unless something is done to preserve the bears’ habitat, two-thirds of the species could disappear by 2050. They site “seismic exploration, construction, transportation and the operation of [oil] facilities” in the area as a serious negative impact on the bears, “as well as contamination from oil spill cleanup operations.” They also mention over hunting as a major problem, though traditional hunting methods are permitted for indigenous people. The World Wildlife Fund is just one organization that is determined to save the Arctic giants.
The Animal planet has featured the plight of polar bears in its Wild Kingdom Special, Polar Bear Alcatraz which aims to raise awareness of the bears’ uncertain future.
The Natural Resources Defense Council has launched its Polar Bear SOS campaign hoping to encourage the federal government to protect the polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. Aside from NRDC’s online interaction opportunities, which urge visitors to donate and reduce their energy usage, the SOS campaign is rounded out by TV ads and a Myspace page.
Several blogs have featured this sad state of affairs, including Polar Bear Alley written by residents of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, the “polar bear capital of the world.” The blog features northern stories about polar bears and general Churchill happenings.
One of my fellow U of O students also wrote a blog about polar bears today. Ms. Jackie Voth has some great insights, and features a few pertinent videos on her Journey Through Jounalism Blog.
The polar bears’ situation is so tragic, and is obvious that something should be done to save them. The Bush Administration should definitely recognize them as an endangered species, as long as outlawing the hunting of polar bears doesnt starve an indigenous people. Though, I can’t really imagine a group of people surviving soley on polar bears.
February 7, 2008
I’m not sure why I waited so long to visit this site. Maybe I just knew it would be would be too good. Seriously, I was right. Greenpeace’s website is an online haven for the environmentally aware. It immediately gives the visiting aware seven opportunities to become active. The top links of each side bar and the links at the top of the page invite the visitor to take action or make a donation. How easy is that? After I followed the “take action” link I was blown away by the amount of campaigns they have going. They had two campaigns feautred and then 20 more in a scrolling drop-down tab! You can sign up on line to call for a strong energy bill, cut out illegal logging, and demand solutions for global warming. The left side bar has links to blogs, discussion boards, e-cards and jobs, not to mention greenpeace’s outstanding student network.
The students are running a campaign called Project Hot Seat. The project’s mission is to join students together to encourage congress to implement global warming solutions right away. Fourty-three U.S. school have joined the network including the University of Oregon. Basically students are invited to post blogs on the Greenpeace Student Network website and possibly assemble themselves. On the Project Hot Seat page itself visitors can check out the Project Hot Seat Tool Kit. Through this tool kit, Greenpeace has brought full-blown activism only a few clicks away, and available for everyone (the best social media strategy I’ve ever seen). There is a link to find the congressman in your district, and a downloadable worksheet that helps you determine where your congressman stands on global warming issues. Next you can download the campaign strategy to find out how to run the campaign on your campus, and then print out petition worksheets and start signing people up. (Oh, how I wish I could put that tool kit to good use. I may be relatively aware, but my contraints at this point are way too high. It’s a shame that everyone I know would say the same thing.) This campaign has made the aware active and sent them after the latents. That’s pretty smart if you ask me.
Project Hot Seat has had some success. In New York, three upstate college campuses have convinced thier congressional representative, Kristen Gillibrand, to sign a Safe Cliamte Act. The act aims to reduce greenhouse gas emmisions by two percent every year from 2010 to 2050.
The project also has a myspace page in Chicago and they have 114 friends.
Pretty much, Greenpeace’s social media strategy is AMAZING. All hail Greenpeace.
February 7, 2008
Each day at one point or another I wander the web searching for online eco PR campiagns. More often I end up at one site in particular and I just have to talk about it! I love Global Cool! The website has five other pages that provide environmental news, celebrity endorsements, easy energy saving tips, and an opportunity to interact. In the “Global Who?” section I was pleased to find HRH Prince Charles in the mix with Sienna Miller and Josh Hartnett. You can click on the celeb’s faces and see their comments about Global Cool. The best pages of this site however, are “Be Cool” and “My CO2″.
The tactics used on these pages are great examples of our most recent assignment in my pr writing class. We’ve been asked to create a social media strategy for an organization of our choice, and I’m very inspired by Global Cool.
The “Be Cool” page does an excellent job of suggesting easy things for people to do that could help “cool” the planet. You can turn down the thermostat in your house by one degree and prevent 400kg of CO2 per year from getting into the air you breath. They say by just unplugging your cell phone charger when not in use, you can save another 7kg per year. Global Cool is urging everyone to shutdown their computers at night, drive and fly less often, and take low-power showers. One of the newest ways you can participate in earth saving, is to recycle your old cell phone. When you upgrade to the newer and faster (if you live in the UK or Europe) you can drop off your old junker at any Vodaphone shop. Because cell phones are made of 80 percent recycleable material, they’ve pledged to collect and recycle 500,000 of your scratched up, broken cellulars. For all of you out there who are environmentally aware but not that active, like me, the “Be Cool” page will be the beginning of your earth saving activity.
The other great page on the Global Cool site is “My CO2.” Through this campaign Global Cool’s mission is to get one billion people to reduce their CO2 emissions by one metric ton. You can create your own workout card where according to categories, such as home, work, and away you can pledge to change your polluting ways. When you finish selecting activies that you promise to perform in these areas of your life, they calculate for you just how many tons you’ll be saving. Presto! There’s some instant gratification for you. I think this idea is awesome. Not only do the coategories give you yet another list of things you can do to reduce your emissions, but your efforts are calculated and appreciated at the end. I think this campaign could turn a lot of aware poeple in to full-on activists.
Way to go Global Cool.
February 1, 2008
I was pretty excited that such a huge eco awareness program was coming to the UO, not that I was surprised or anything. The City of Eugene is wild about preserving our environment and finding more sustainable ways to do our regular daily activities. The University of Oregon was one of the first colleges in the nation to have its very own recycling and composting systems. That was 30 years ago and today they are flourishing. Despite being veterans of the environmental movement, yesterday the Eugene/Springfield area hosted its first ever climate summit. UO president Dave Frohnmayer was there, along with senior staff members from Eugene Water & Electric Board, North West Natural Gas, Lane Transit District, Springfield School District, Bethel School District, 4J School District, City of Eugene, City of Springfield, Lane County, Lane Council of Governments, Lane Community College, and The University of Oregon. Sadly I could not join them. Unfortunately my homework is a high priority. Later in the evening I did get to sit in on a short lecture led by one of the university’s environmental science professors, Peter Walker. The room was almost ful- I would say about half the attendees were students. Prof. Walker was a great speaker and seemed very passionate about the environmental injustices he informed us of. I was shocked by a lot of his disaterous statistics, like the fact that the U.S. is home to less that 5% of the world population, yet we produce 25% of the CO2 emissions on the planet. ouch. I came out of the EMU’s Walnut Room with a better understanding that rising ocean levels, increased storm activity, severe droughts, the proliferation of harmful insects and the massive die-off of several species are greatly due to global warming. And, efforts to reduce or reverse our negative impacts have not been particulary successful.
As I sit here at home, thinking about our nation’s real efforts to preserve our planet, I am wondering if Focus the Nation actually sunk into the minds of those who participated. Im not about to take any campus-wide polls or anything, so I guess I’ll never really know for sure, but I do know that it didnt do THAT much for me. As a full-time student with a part-time job I’ve become a pretty busy girl and resort to the usual excuse that I dont have room in my schedule to do more for the planet. I fill up my little pick-up truck with bio-ethanol even though it’s slightly more expensive, and I recycle the things I can, like cardboard glass and plastic. But what about those who dont? I know for a fact there are some people around here who never recycle a thing, dont hesitate to get in their car and drive just a quarter-mile to school, and pitch trash out of their wondow on the way. Those people didn’t and still dont know about Focus the Nation. So is the campaign at fault? I feel like they could have done a much better job of alerting the campus to thier presence. I didnt see one poster, one flyer, or one handout about Focus the Nation. I only found out about it while purposfully surfing the net for eco campaigns.
In an ADD age where only the most outrageous marketing and PR strategies can reach young people, I think this campaign tanked. On our campus anyway. I know that I care about preserving the environment, and so do millions of others, but until someone or something can reach those who just dont care, then Focus the Nation’s objective may never be achieved.
January 30, 2008
As I dive into the blogosphere – and a murky water it is – I am overwhelmed by the vastness of topics under the discussion of millions. It makes me wonder how our country’s mainstream masses could carry on without noticing the impact that bloggers and the social media movement have made on what is now an infomation autobahn. Regular people sitting at home on thier computers have become government watchdogs, social analysts, newscasters and entertainment gossip queens; all under the noses of those reading newspapers and listening to the radio. While I still feel that newspaper is a valid source of news and entertainment, it does leave something to be desired when compared to the 24-hour updates and specialization of the internet. And, while I have my reservations about the ability of anyone with internet access to write up a blog and violate my expectation of truth, I have to appreciate the way blogging has opened up our democracy and allowed even the most underrepresented voices to be heard.
The practice of public relations is in the midst of a communication makeover conducted by social media. Reaching out to audiences in an instant and allowing them to interact on forums has created a valuable two-way communication system that many practitioners find ideal.
Environmental crisis and global warming have inspired more social and eco resposibility in journalism and public relations today. Organizations are popping up everywhere, dedicated to educating the public about how they can reduce thier energy usage, make habit of recycling, and protect the environment.
Starting tomorrow the University of Oregon is taking part in a program called Focus the Nation. Through this nation-wide teach-in, creator Eban Goodstein hopes to give students the tools to “rewire the entire planet with low-cost, clean energy technologies, create tens of millions of jobs, stabilize the climate, and lay the foundation for a prosperous, sustainable future.” On Thursday, more than 1,500 institutions will host events that bring students, faculty and other citizens together with elected leaders to hash out solutions to global warming.
I’m plan to participate in the teach-in – between classes, group meetings and endless reading assignments that is – and I’ll let you all know how Focus the Nation’s public relations strategy and tactics affect my average citizen motivations to protect the earth.
January 18, 2008
I am starting my very first blog to narrate my investigation of the role of public relations in the world’s efforts to stop global warming. My weekly posts will asses PR campaigns that address climate change, alternative energy sources, endangered species and other current environmental issues. I am a senior PR student at the Univerity of Oregon in Eugene. A compilation of my posts will be graded for my advanced PR writing course, so good luck to me 
. After graduation I hope to practice public relations for an organization that is dedicated to furthering the environmental movement.
