Lawrence Solomon: UN goes Hollywood to counter global warming deniers

(February 27, 2011) Lawrence Solomon reports on the UN Secretary General’s direct appeal to Hollywood to make global warming a “hot issue.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon took time off from the skirmishes in Libya and other bothers to fight the real threats facing the planet – those coming from the global warming deniers who have thwarted the UN plans for Kyoto II.

“I need your support,” he admitted last week in a pitch to 400 Hollywood movers and shakers in a day-long forum that played up the doom and gloom message — floods, fires and drought – that only Hollywood can sell to a sceptical public.

“Animate these stories!” Ban urged. “Set them to music! Give them life! Together we can have a blockbuster impact on the world.”

The Hollywood crowd, subjected to a day filled with panels with titles like “Making Global Warming a HOT Issue,” seemed sceptical itself. A vice president from Walt Disney, unimpressed by the UN’s two-decades long effort to market climate change to the public, said that it “feels like an early step,” asking “How do you make it marketable, palatable and engaging without preaching?” Another executive noted “the best messaging on climate change by far is by the deniers.”

Ban remains hopeful that he can swing Hollywood his way: “You have power and influence to send to millions and billions of people around world,” he said, adding “Some believe we have 2 or 3 planets, but we don’t. This is the planet we have to preserve and hand to future generations.”

Ban’s visit to Hollywood was part of the UN’s Creative Community Outreach Initiative, a major marketing effort starring himself that counts among its successes its role in the movies, The Interpreter and Che.

Financial Post, February 27

LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com
Lawrence Solomon is executive director of Energy Probe and the author of The Deniers.

About Lawrence Solomon

Lawrence Solomon is one of Canada's leading environmentalists. His book, The Conserver Solution (Doubleday) popularized the Conserver Society concept in the late 1970s and became the manual for those interested in incorporating environmental factors into economic life. An advisor to President Jimmy Carter's Task Force on the Global Environment (the Global 2000 Report) in the late 1970's, he has since been at the forefront of movements to reform foreign aid, stop nuclear power expansion and adopt toll roads. Mr. Solomon is a founder and managing director of Energy Probe Research Foundation and the executive director of its Energy Probe and Urban Renaissance Institute divisions. He has been a columnist for The Globe and Mail, a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, the editor and publisher of the award-winning The Next City magazine, and the author or co-author of seven books, most recently The Deniers, a #1 environmental best-seller in both Canada and the U.S. .

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3 Responses to Lawrence Solomon: UN goes Hollywood to counter global warming deniers

Rural Grubby says:

February 28, 2011 at 11:01 pm

Don’t they have enough spin doctors through the ENGO’s that land baste us on a daily basis how we must save the world and stop Global Warming, all using public dollars in the process? I am so sick of green!

Sean Holt says:

March 3, 2011 at 8:37 pm

Whenever I hear the ignorant go on as they do about global warming, sorry; Climate Change, this is what I say:

“Are you REALLY concerned about CO2 induced climate change” to which they always say; “yes”!

Then I say: “You can reduce anthropomorphic CO2 RIGHT NOW!” to which they invariably say; “how”

And I say:” STOP EXHALING!”

:-)

Sean.

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