Here’s a video that delivers a stern warning against dumping household hazardous waste down the toilet or in the stormdrain. It’s a great message for those who are paying close attention, but some people will see the commercial while sitting in a bar, or in the airport, or while their kids are yelling in their ear, or in some other distracting situation. Those folks won’t hear the narrator saying it’s bad to dump oil down the storm drain — they’ll just see a guy dumping oil down the drain and his wife doesn’t seem to mind.
Monkey see, monkey do. Under certain circumstances, this video could accidentally send the message that it’s ok to dump oil down the storm drain. The video should show the guy’s wife hitting him with a frying pan. That’s a message that would come through even if the sound was off.
Oh, yes indeed. Here’s a very nice piece. It doesn’t actually use the water words that work, but it hits all the right buttons. Watch this piece and watch how hard the producers are working to prove to viewers that their $1 donation makes a difference, and that if a lot of people work together to make a $1 dollar donation, it will make a big difference to help all those children stay healthy! Terrific work from The Tap Project!
Tip of the hat to Julie at the Water Resources Education Network for sharing this fine work.
This time it’s in Montana, where the Department of Environmental Quality is seeking:
… applicants for mini-grants of EXACTLY $1,500 to fund local education and outreach efforts that address water quality and nonpoint source pollution issues,” according to the email announcement….Focusing on education and outreach, the grants provide a mechanism to increase awareness of local nonpoint source pollution issues and to improve water quality through educational activities.
The agency envisions that those seeking grants will be:
- Local watershed groups
- Conservation districts
- County extension services
- Schools
Etc… and must have the ability to manage federal funding.
To read the call for mini grants, click here.
To download the mini-grant application, click here
Drink up? Or dose up? There’s not much difference according to an explosive Associated Press story about the presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water. Plenty of Internet buzz already (click here, here, and here), most of it from folks smarter than me, but here’s the paragraph in the story that I am qualified to opine about:
In the course of a five-month inquiry… the AP National Investigative Team reviewed hundreds of scientific reports, analyzed federal drinking water databases, visited environmental study sites and treatment plants and interviewed more than 230 officials, academics and scientists.
In other words: preparing this important story was a massive and expensive undertaking. It’s a throwback to the 20th century – back when big names in journalism competed for Pulitzers instead of paparrazi photos. But in today’s industry, with layoffs lurking around every corner, how many institutions are left that can afford to assign a team of reporters to work on one story for five months?
The traditional journalism business model that produced this great story seems to be headed for the trash heap of history. Let’s hope somebody comes up with a new media business model that can fund important investigative work like this in the future.
