Category Archives: SIGN THE PETITION

While spending Earth
Day at the Fortune Brainstorm Green Conference, held at the Ritz Carlton
in Laguna Niguel, California, I couldn’t help but marvel at how far
we’ve come since I started covering the trash beat on Earth Day, 1997. 

Listening to Bill Clinton’s
keynote on climate change, and hearing executives from IBM, GE, and
WalMart tout their impressive sustainability initiatives, one could
not help but feel a glimmer of green optimism. 

Yes, green washing
is still a reality but I am more concerned about a practice someone
dubbed green hushing. That’s the tendency to talk up a company’s
green side in the confines of environmental gatherings, but not take
that message out to the public. What’s wrong with that? It
misses both a chance to show stewardship as something to be proud of,
and an opportunity to support green programming that, if more widely
accessible, could inform and inspire millions of Americans. 

Where’s the
green to back green radio? 

Can you name
any corporate brands that have put their money where their mouth
is to sponsor a national show focused exclusively on environmental news
and views? Or even a syndicated green minute? I can tell you it hasn’t
happened because bringing green content to network airwaves is what
I’ve been trying to do for a decade, with mixed results. Meantime,
think of all the business, sports, celebrity and so-called “reality
shows” clogging airwaves, while our future hangs in the balance.  

My efforts to green
the country’s radio waves have been both costly and confounding. 
But that was then, this is now. We have a green president in the White
House, corporate America is waking up to smell the co2, and hope is
in the air.  

At
last month’s Fortune Green conference
I invited the most proactive companies to walk the eco talk by supporting
a show that would bring more Americans into the conversations about
conservation, widen the tent, and grow the choir from coast to coast. 
Isn’t that exactly what’s needed next? 

I plan to follow up
with all of them but want to first arm myself with evidence of demand
for an all green talk program. I know interest is out there but need
to prove it by capturing thousands of signatures on a petition we’ve
posted on FaceBook Causes.

A month prior to issuing
this eco-challenge to Fortune 500 companies starting down the green
path, I did the same to a convention of (mostly conservative) talk radio programmers and syndicators.

Green Radio at
the Not-OK Corral 

With the other end
of the roadblock –media managers – in mind, in March I attended the
Radio & Records Talk Radio Seminar held in Los Angeles. 

Take a look at my laying
down of the Green Gauntlet to big market GM’s – who hold the keys
to the nation’s airwaves – imploring them to carry at least one
eco-focused interview program.  The respondent in this short video
clip is Phil Boyce, owner of a group of Rush Limbaugh
friendly stations.  His retort is candid, revealing, provocative,
and ultimately motivational!  See what you think…  

The cockiness (and
cluelessness) is ironic since these executives spent much of the conference
lamenting the potential demise of radio due to diminishing ad revenue
and an ever shrinking market share. Perhaps offering a program focused
on the most pressing issue of our times – planetary survival – would
be a fruitful way to stay relevant! 

Facebook Cause
– One Green Radio Show! 

If you agree that
at least one company purporting to embrace sustainability should
step up to help fill the dearth of regular green programming in mainstream
media outlets by underwriting such content (with attached advertising
opportunity), then please sign our pledge at FaceBook Causes … 

If you feel the nation’s
radio and television owners and operators should give equal time to
Mother Earth, or at least one hour per week, then let your voice be
heard!  

By signing our petition,
and forwarding it to your circles, you are pledging to programmers that
you will in fact listen to a green program that has a
track record of success, farm fresh content, reliable information, credible
sources, big market experience, and a friendly, engaging, even humorous,
style. We need thousands of signatures but I know the support is out
there. Three years ago my Air America program attracted some 50-thousand
listeners and that was before the Green Rush! 

Together, using the
power of en-viral marketing, let’s join our voices in a resounding
response to the contention that “no one will listen”.  Let’s
shout back “yes we will!!”  

Thanks so much for
your support.   

As glaciers melt,

Betsy Rosenberg

With the sinking economy gasping for
air, trying to sputter back to the surface, and Swine Flu spreading
a new kind of fever, global warming is being put back on the ice shelf,
or so it seems.  Americans are telling their President to stop
multi-tasking and focus on the financial markets first. As if there
is much value in jobs and security on a dying planet.

Let’s hope the days of economy vs.
environment’s false dichotomy are behind us, along with the fake arguments
against climate change science.

So, we’re left with the facts; that
the ice shelves are falling, glaciers are melting, bees and major fish
species are disappearing, and we have somewhere between 7 to 10 years
to turn this mother ship around, or else.

Given the true global 911,
you’d think emergency actions would be taken round the clock and en
masse. You’d think we’d be using the major media outlets to alert
and educate the public about planetary perils and all able-bodied earthlings
would band together in the transition to a more sustainable model of
energy production, and fast. You would think… 

As droughts worsen and weather extremes
continue to break records, and lives, the earth’s inhabitants are
beginning to understand that dependence on fossil fuels may be our undoing
while water will be our next oil.

And while the Greenies have gone –
as Van Jones says – from eco freaks to eco chics, the sea change needed
to save our selves (SOS) is not yet underway, or at least not fast,
deep or wide enough. Most likely coming soon after these commercial
messages…

…And speaking of commercials, can
you name any corporate brands that have put their money where their
green mouth is to sponsor a daily program focused exclusively on environmental
news and views we can all use? Or even a green minute for that matter.
I can tell you it hasn’t happened because bringing green content to
the mass airwaves has been – for the most part -  a lonely and
thankless endeavor. 

But that was then, this is now. We have a
green president in the White House, corporate America is seeing it’s
time to evolve or die, and hope is in the air.

So last week I invited a few of the
larger corporations represented at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference
to walk the eco talk by making possible a show that makes a difference.

If I cover one more conference and hear what Starbuck’s, HP, WalMart,
etc. are doing to save the planet – and about all the millions being
poured into clean tech R and D – while those same green leaning companies
have not spent a dime to support green content getting out to the mainstream
public via mass media commercial outlets, I will choke on my Chai Latte!

And it’s not only Starbuck’s. Even
the greenest company of them all – by far and for longest – Patagonia,
is still reluctant to underwrite conservation tips on the radio or make
possible a green TV talk show that informs and inspires the masses on
a daily basis.  

During a session at last week’s Fortune conference,
when someone referred to this curious phenomenon as Green Hush, a knowing
smile crossed the faces of those in the room. Despite the arrival of
the Green Rush, Green Hush is still alive and well. And
that’s bad news for the health and wealth of all Americans.  

A month prior to issuing this Eco challenge
to Fortune 500 companies starting down the green path, I did the same
to a convention of (mostly conservative) radio programmers and syndicators.

As you
can see in a short video clip, the arrogance in that industry is appalling,
especially ironic since these executives spent much of the conference
lamenting the demise of radio due to diminishing ad revenue and an ever
shrinking market share for the ears  of Americas. 

Perhaps keeping
up with, or even ahead, of the times would be a fruitful way to stay
relevant. 

If you agree that at least one company
purporting to embrace sustainability should step up to help fill the
dearth of daily green programming in mainstream media outlets by underwriting
such content, then please sign our pledge at FaceBook Causes.

If you think the nation's airwaves should be giving equal time to MotherEarth,
or at least one hour per week, then let your voice be heard.
Sign our
pledge to programmers that you will in fact listen to a green
program that has farm fresh content, big market experience, and a friendly,
engaging style.

Let’s prove them dead wrong when they arrogantly declare
that “no one will listen”!