If your target audience is straight and male, then this is a very effective technique:
Peak oil is a controversial topic, so Oily Cassandra, good on you. Very effective way to get your target audience to listen. Marshall McLuhan is right, the medium is the message. Now, turning to the actual message, I tend to agree that peak oil has happened or is happening now.
However, I’m not as pessimistic about the outcome as Cassandra seems to be. Yes, there is a downside risk of cataclysmic societal collapse ala “The Road Warrior” – but there is some hope. Oil will not run out tomorrow. Peak oil means we’re not going to be able to increase production of oil from present levels and will enter a decline curve. In the meanwhile, biofuels, while not perfect can help form a bridge to an electric powered economy which is satisfied by a number of different technologies that exist today. It won’t be easy, but it is possible.
The best way to get an American’s attention is to hit them in the wallet, well that’s happening with the devaluation of the dollar and the increased demand for resources globally and ultimately, that, will drive innovation and alternatives. Don’t give up hope Cassandra, education on the subject is a net positive, but it’s not a foregone conclusion that we’ll see the outcomes you predict.
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Is this the same woman? If so, very clever, and very amazing! You go, girl!
Good eye, it is the same woman.
With apologies to the Fake Steve Jobs, the problem with these “bleaktards” is that they offer no solutions. Anyone can enumerate problems and stand on a corner, shaking a finger, and tell us the world is going to end. Our history on earth is littered with soothsayers and doom-mongers that preached apocalypse. I’m thankful not all of our ancestors jumped off the cliff, which is apparently all that Cassandra can offer for advice.
Nah, the adolescent male will quickly head over to a pr0n site, once he realizes that he’s being lectured.
Hadn’t heard the term bleaktards before, makes me chuckle. Having been young once, I chalk up some of Cassandra’s viewpoint to that – it’s a starting point. No doubt many young men would mute the voice over or change to something else, but many will listen too and that’s a good start. Some people need to be frightened before they are primed to do something.
That being said, I do wish there was a little more on the solution side and a little less on the doom and gloom side in the message.