I am a loyal Trader Joe’s customer. But when I stopped in today, my local branch was proudly displaying one of my least favorite words: “Sustainable,” a word documented to exclude or puzzle many (if not most) of our fellow citizens.

Why would Trader Joe’s do this? Because according to Scarborough Research, the typical Trader Joe’s shopper is:

…a college-educated, white homeowner with a median age of 44 and a median household income of $64,000. Almost evenly divided among married people and singles, females and males, two-thirds have no kids at home.

So flouting snobby vocabulary is OK for Trader Joe’s. If you appreciate that term, you probably have the income and tastes for what Trader Joe’s sells. Trader Joe’s doesn’t cater to people with junior college or high school educations, or to people who punch time cards and wear hard hats or uniforms to work. For people like this,  puzzling signs on the wall send a subtle signal that they might get more respect down the street at Safeway. 

And when nature protection and pollution control organizations flout elite vocabulary like “sustainable,” “watershed,” and “hydrograph” in our public-facing communiations, we’re effectively doing the same thing — sending well-meaning but less priveledged people down the street to the humane society, the homeless shelter, and the neighborhood watch – where people speak their language and everybody feels welcome and important.

Is what’s right for Trader Joe’s right for us?

Well, I can’t figure out how to keep my animated tuna fish out of the fishing nets, but I guess that’s the point of Ocean Survivor, a new videogame from the Conserve Our Ocean Legacy (COOL) coalition.

I think it’s really great that the groups are trying to get their message out this way. It’s a valiant effort to reach out to a younger generation. The piece closes by telling players what they can do — sign a petition to somebody.

Now I’ll pick on the group. The name is weak. They give up too much for the COOL acronym. That’s because “legacy” is not a water word that works. Americans are profoundly unresponsive to messages that mix history and nature protection. They nod and listen politely while we tell our stories of legacies, heritage, traditions, and other nostalgia for yesteryear, and then they go back to their usual business. 

If you really want people’s attention, talk about the future.  When will there be no more tuna? When will it be too late to do something about this?

If COOL simply must have a memorable acronym, they could call themselves  something like “A Living Ocean Future Trust.” (ALOFT).

Hat tip to M.C. for spotting the game.

The market research company Umbria recently released a study of the attitudes people express online about global warming. The good news: Public opinion is generally with us. The bad news: There is a substantial minority of vocal holdouts who will be all but impossible to convince. If you follow social research as closely as I do, that’s fresh confirmation of an old story.

A variety of studies have reached this conclusion and have generally put the naysayers into two camps — people who really have a grudge against nature protection and pollution control efforts, and people who just don’t want to be inconvenienced for the greater good. Umbria calls them “rejectors” and “negators,” and describes them thus:

A key thing to understand about “rejectors,” “negators,” and everybody else for that matter, is that they don’t just feel this way about global warming – they feel this way about everything. These are personality types, not rationally thought-through positions.

When you run into these personality types, and you will, it’s better not to get drawn into an argument with them. You won’t change their mind, so why waste your breath? Focus your energy instead on the much larger number of people who are willing to be persuaded but have some inhibition they need you to overcome.

The Kodak American Greenways Awards Program, a partnership project of the Eastman Kodak Company, the Conservation Fund , and the National Geographic Society , provides small grants to stimulate the planning, design, and community acceptance of greenways in communities throughout America. So what’s a greenway? The sponsors define it as:

… protected, public and private land established along rivers, stream valleys, ridges… canals… or other linear features. They link recreational, cultural, and natural features, provide pathways for people and wildlife, protect forests, wetlands and grasslands, and improve the quality of life for everyone.

Although greenways improve the quality of life for everyone, the funders here recognize that some communities may need some persuading:

Grants may be used for activities such as …developing brochures, interpretative displays, audio-visual
productions, or public opinion surveys; and hiring consultants

The sponsors will accept applications from now through June 15.

Click here for more about the program.

Click here to download the application guidelines.