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Paz, Octavio
pitching an audience | media | religious frame | six steps | message | Press |
Talking Points
The Scientific Evidence For Global Warming Presents A Compelling Case For Immediate Action:
Recent Results Clear Up Key Uncertainties.
- Humans have been releasing unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from fossil fuel use and deforestation.
- As a direct result, concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are at their highest levels in the last 400,000 years. Carbon dioxide concentrations are over 360 parts per million (ppm), 30% above pre-industrial levels of 270 to 280 ppm.
- Analysis of carbon isotopes in ice core samples proves a large human contribution to increases in GHGs. (Wigley, 1999)
- Surface air temperature increases of 0.7 to 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 100 years are “undoubtedly real.” This finding addresses questions raised by a lower temperature increase from satellite measurements; the remaining discrepancy is likely a statistical sampling issue arising from the short length of the satellite record. (National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, January 2000).
- 1990s are the warmest decade on record. Seven warmest years on record are 1999, 1998, 1997, 1995, 1990, 1991, 1994. (Jones et al., 1999)
- NOAA research provides first finding of increases in ocean temperatures in the three major oceans. This is consistent with the global warming trend observed in surface temperature record. (Science, March 24, 2000)
- The rate of increase in temperatures is increasing in the 1990s.
- Over 80 initial signals of the effects of climate change are identified in a peer-reviewed study, summarized in the attached global map. (Global Warming: Early Warning Signs)
- Warming of 3.4 to 5.2 degrees Fahrenheit is projected from 1990 to 2100 under business as usual scenarios.
“We are undertaking an unprecedented experiment with the physical and biological systems upon which we rely for our health, homes, and livelihood.”
Dan Lashof, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Natural Resources Defense Council. Testimony before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, March 30, 2000.
The Media NEEDS A STORY with a human face.
"money from advertising" show the jobs connection or savings:
- Cover the most significant (costly or beneficial) details
- Corporate connection: Pew Business Council, Cool Companies
- Highlight Contradictions in the current system: perverse incentives
- Credibility: use facts, tell the truth, let others speak.
- Good people, are those who put a credible face on the matter.
- Explain Alternatives
- Keep the news in front of the daily and weekly papers
audience | media | religious frame
The frames for your advocacy:
- Stewardship.
- Public's good, health, security, safety.
- The fair, honest thing to do.
- Makes economic sense.
- Responsive to a real needs.
- Opportunity to act effectively.
audience | media | religious frame | six steps | message model | Press | pitching
Model for messages in a position paper.
- The solution, So what needs to be resolved?
- The problem, what needs solving and why?
- A call to action, motivating the grass roots.
Position paper example
An example of climate change as a position paper based on research
How to use messages to frame the problem
President Bush Speech 13 September 2007:
War in Iraq open-ended?
Naively, narcissistic.
N.Y. Times news analysis piece:
Multiple Messages and Audiences
By DAVID E. SANGER
President Bush’s address again raises the question of what America’s mission in Iraq really is.
“The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home,” he said. But it is a promise Americans have heard before, and Mr. Bush offered no timelines.
“He wanted to frame this week about a choice,” said Peter Feaver, a former senior official on the National Security Council who helped draft the troop increase strategy and has returned to teach at Duke University. “One choice is a withdrawal driven by progress on the ground, and it will be slower than you want. Or you can have withdrawals based on partisan politics, and the results will be faster, but the consequences more dire.”
In framing the debate that way, Mr. Bush appears, at least for now, to have changed the dynamic in Congress. Democrats like the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, who a few weeks ago was dismissing plans for gradual drawdowns as “weak tea,” are now talking about trying to legislate slower timetables. But some Democrats advising Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have privately expressed fears that Mr. Bush is essentially leaving it to the next president to take the responsibility for a rapid pullout — and the blame for whatever chaos or civil war may ensue. And even some moderate Republicans have little interest in talking to voters about an enduring troop presence in Iraq or the region, for fear it suggests that there really is no end in sight.
“The buck stops over there, not here.”
Opinion editorials & press
Don't let them trivialize an issue.
Research is key for making facts the focus of the news.
"I'm not just a tree hugger, I am an air breather and water drinker."
Clean, healthy environments are a family value.
Poison's don't discriminate as to who they sicken and kill (mercury in emissions) .
