Inspiring mainstream commitment to solve global warming by andrewgaines

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Rachel Finkelstein Mar 7, 2015 12:29 Fellow 1 \| Share via:	Welcome to the Climate CoLab, @andrewgaines!
Hemant Wagh Mar 21, 2015 02:53 Member 2 \| Share via:	Hello ! A theme you may find useful is available and the link to it is below- https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1300103/planId/1310401 Kindly go through it and give your valuable feedback. Thanks.
Dave Finnigan Apr 4, 2015 11:45 Member 3 \| Share via:	Andrew - We won Judges Choice for Youth Action last year and are hard at work making the Green Action Card a reality. https://www.dropbox.com/s/pt6u0gw9508dpay/Executive%20Summary%20-%20GreenActionCard%E2%84%A2.docx?dl=0 I would plus your proposal by suggesting that people need to go through a series of steps from mere Awareness to Advocacy. Those steps are shown in the graphic at https://www.dropbox.com/s/ncuqrrhv7bihpoj/Steps%20to%20Advocacy.011.jpg?dl=0 At every level in this process you need to build in reinforcements. Mere awareness and interest are not enough. In our program we move people along with lists of things to do to reduce their carbon and water footprints, and small rewards for ticking those items off their lists. The Green Action Card allows them to get a discount on purchases of "green" goods and services, and gives a rebate to the issuing school when the family takes a green step. "As we green our homes we'll green our schools" is the theme. People will act altruistically if they get a reward for their new behavior and if they think other people are watching. Also we choose to ignore the Dismissive and Doubtful because they are in another hump of a bimodal curve as shown in this graphic. https://www.dropbox.com/s/3o23156xqhey1td/Bimodal%20curve.008%20copy.jpg?dl=0 We can and must solve this problem, and we need to move ahead with tools that work. What are the tools you will use to move people forward? What are your reinforcements that will allow them to go up those steps from Awareness to Advocacy? How do you get them to "put their money where their mouth is?" Dave Finnigan davefinnigan@yahoo.com
Andrew Gaines Apr 6, 2015 04:51 Member 4 \| Share via:	Proposal contributor Hi Dave, Thanks for taking the time to critique my proposal. I think there is a difference between trying to change individual’s local behaviour and aiming to change the direction of a whole society – a vast difference in magnitude and appropriate strategies. The required shift includes individual changes, of course. But it also includes mental and emotional preparation for major changes in economics, energy creation and distribution, and corporate influence on governments. These are things beyond any one individual’s capacity to affect directly. In addition, people in positions of influence are can foster improvements in industrial design, agriculture, and the way schools and businesses are run internally. All of this put together we call a’ whole system change’. So our goal is to inspire mainstream commitment to solving all the interrelated factors that make global warming global warming and other environmental issues worse. Commitment, to be useful, requires a path to success, and authors such as David Korten and Amory Lovins have done a brilliant job in articulating both the social and technological changes that are necessary and possible. Our job is to mobilise the passionate public will to put them to work at the scale required. So our emphasis is indeed on awareness, but not just awareness of the problems; awareness of lines of solution people can participate in or support. Crucial to success is to mobilise enough public will. That is why our emphasis is on communication to help people connect-the-dots and think for themselves. You indicate, appropriately, that people need support for moving forward. While we support independent action, our model also involves inviting people to join support groups – pods or hubs – and working together to apply communication tactics for affecting mainstream consciousness that happen to interest them. A rich set of tactics is given in our paper The Great Transition initiative - Engaging mainstream commitment to a life-sustaining society. Andrew Gaines andrewgaines@andrewgaines.net
Peter Suchmann Apr 9, 2015 03:30 Catalyst 5 \| Share via:	Great Start...I would like to see specifics about your plan to mobilize the public and bring about actions that resonate with your theme.
Manohar Lal Baharani May 13, 2015 09:34 Catalyst 6 \| Share via:	Awareness on the lines of solutions (not just describing the problems) people can support or participate is a very welcome move. How you intend going about getting involvement of competent resources / people who could draw the road maps for ecologically benign life style in certain select areas that you propose. Wish you success and look forward to read further on this. Bests, Manohar
Andrew Gaines Jun 4, 2015 07:54 Member 7 \| Share via:	Proposal contributor Hi Peter & Manohar, I appreciate your interest. The specifics are spelled out in our paper Accelerating the Great Transition: Inspiring mainstream commitment to a life-sustaining society. It describes a communication strategy that thousands of groups can buy into, a method for reaching and engaging these groups, and a variety of communication tactics, some quite innovative, for reaching mainstream people. This is not just a ‘good idea’. We have a robust platform in place, and a growing team of people who are passionate about pushing the Inspiring Transition initiative, as we are now calling it. The Inspiring Transition Launch will be throughout September, 2015. I would be pleased if you would critically review our approach, and consider being active in it yourself. All the relevant material is available on the Inspiring Transition website (www.inspiringtransition.net ). andrewgaines@inspiringtransition.net
Jennifer Perron Jun 10, 2015 02:10 Member 8 \| Share via:	Hi Andrew, Thanks for your proposal to the Climate CoLab. I'm one of the catalysts, helping provide comments and feedback, in an effort to help strengthen proposals. Thank you for sharing your proposal about the Great Transition website and communications tools. Here are a few prompts/questions that you could attempt to incorporate into your description/summary, to help flesh out the proposal a bit further: A. You might describe any potential marketing and/or outreach you might conduct to spread the word about the site and entice participation. For example, efforts through social media channels, contests like the CoLab, and other mediums. B. In the section titled "proposal costs" you respond to the potentially larger societal economic implications of such a transition, but you might also add a paragraph that speaks to the direct physical costs (in labor, maintenance, IT, etc) of running the website, and any future development. C. You might try to link how people's use of these communications tools may influence public perceptions enough to elicit behavioral change that may result in tangible emissions reductions. How might the memes and messaging result in concrete changes in personal actions that having bearing on climate change? D. Finally, you could consider making reference to the possibility of translating the website into English, or having parallel sites in different languages across the globe, such to reach a global audience. Thanks for your contribution.
Stevie Harison Jun 12, 2015 04:20 Catalyst 9 \| Share via:	Hello from Indonesia, Good luck for your project proposal. Just review and make it completed before meet deadline tomorrow. Thank you,
Andrew Gaines Jun 13, 2015 05:13 Member 10 \| Share via:	Proposal contributor I appreciate your suggestions, jperron. Very helpful. I have revised the text and added a budget.