Out in Iowa’s Great Lakes country, somebody screwed up and now a bunch of fish are dying, slow, painful, needless deaths. PR pros call this a “teachable moment.” It’s a brief window of opportunity when the slow, incremental degradation of the natural world reveals itself to even casual observers. It’s some immediate, awful, tangible event that nobody wants to see happen again.

And “again” is the key word here. The thing to talk about at a teachable moment like this is the future. While the memory is fresh, your fellow citizens will be very receptive to your proposals if you point out how they will prevent this awful event from reoccurring. It’s a great time to use words like “planning ahead,” “balance,” “investment,” and of course, “future generations.”

But that memory won’t stay fresh for long, so think carefully about whether you want to use your teachable moment to push for a positive solution — or make sure someone gets what they’ve got coming to them.

Fish kills are one kind of teachable moment. Floods are another. Dam failures are another.

What else in our world could we consider a teachable moment?

Hat tip to Darryl Halling for taking this graphic shot and letting me use it. He’s a member of the Iowa Great Lakes Yahoo! group, a terrific group of clean water activists.