Kristina/Jason’s plea for a tagline here reminds me: check out this post over on the NRDC Switchboard blog. It notes the success of Michael Pollan’s already legendary aphorism — "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." — and wonders whether something similarly compact could be used to explain what people need to know about climate change.
A couple of Times bloggers noted that this little pearl has a "haiku-like resonance" – seven plain words, and something about its two-word / three-word / two-word structure. Dwight Garner amused himself trying his hand at it. And then the Well blog’s Tara Parker-Pope thought, Surely this warrants a competition. She posted an entry challenging her readers to vie for top honors – and received more than 1,000 submissions! (My favorite: "Call Mom. Let her talk. Don’t argue.")
For years I’ve been looking for a short, memorable way to convey what people need to know about global warming. Then I saw this and thought, Well, why shouldn’t we have some fun with this too?
I hereby declare the Switchboard "Seven Words to Save the Planet" challenge open to all comers.
Let’s collectively come up with one and send it their way. Here’s my (horrible) inaugural effort:
"Electrify transport. Green the grid. Reconnect communities."
Pollan I ain’t.
What have y’all got?
