It seems that a number of you enjoyed the 20 funniest protest signs post from a few days ago. Once upon a time, nature protection and pollution control people would get out and wave signs, too.
As proof, I submit this photo from the mid 1970s. There’s nothing funny, clever, or slick about this message — but it’s clear and sincere.
Any government official who drove through town and passed these guys would get the message that at least some residents did not want the dam. And anybody who was against the dam but afraid to speak up would be emboldened by the sight of others taking a public stand.
Somewhere along the way a lot of us greenies lost the will to get out and take our message to the public directly — preferring instead to work through newspapers and other types of mass media. Those days seem to be winding down: According to the News Cycle Blog, more than 15,000 newspaper jobs disappeared last year.
Thanks to C.B. in Illinois for sharing this image!
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What happened is that somewhere along the way, we won. When you win, your tactics have to adapt. If you don’t see people waving signs anymore, it could be because that tactic is not the right tool for the job.
This tactic works best when the job is to stop something from happenining, especially if it involves construction of a thing that is big. Between ESA, NEPA and the courts, we’ve got good tools for that. Some would argue they are too good and a little too indiscriminate in their ability to delay.
Most of the public communications problems we face are when we are trying to make something good happen. Most of the challenges we face are not big projects, but the cumulative effects many, many little projects.
Somewhere along the way, we also became the establishment. We are the proposers of projects others are trying to stop. We are the experts that believe fervantly in the benefit of our projects. Anti-environmental activists have been most effective when they wave signs and try to come off as the disenfranchized counter-culture little guys that are taking on the big, bad government and all their out-of-touch, ivory tower experts. They use staged protests to create a sense of conflict and division over regulations or restoration projects they oppose. The have also done a lot of damage with citizens initiatives. The term astro-turf arose from efforts of large corporations to generate synthetic grass-roots movements to use theis tactic in opposition to regulation, or in the protection of a cherished entitlement.
I think the gaame today is how to counter these tactics in a post mass-media world.