Category: technology
James Fowler, a professor of psychology at UCSD, found that messages from our peers are more likely to initiate action than messages delivered by a political committee [ link ]. Last year, Obamaâs reelection committee learned the same thing. They developed a system that leverages database technology and social-media to deliver their messages. In an instant, this system allows them to:
- mobilize grassroots support for White House concerns
- provide White House support for local concerns
Apparently they took an extra step, conducted surveys ..and learned that nothing energizes participation better than âreciprocityâ. Brilliant use of technology combined with Obamaâs experience as a community organizer. Politically Iâm independent and pretty damn naïve ..but I can see why this might give Republicans cause for alarm.
- Labels: bill, media, politics, technology
As the Rio+20 Earth Summit â the largest U.N. conference ever â ends in disappointment, weâre joined by the leading Canadian scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster David Suzuki. As host of the long-runningCBC program, “The Nature of Things,” seen in more than 40 countries, Suzuki has helped educate millions about the rich biodiversity of the planet and the threats it faces from human-driven global warming. In 1990 he co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation which focuses on sustainable ecology and in 2009, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award. Suzuki joins us from the summit in Rio de Janeiro to talk about the climate crisis, the student protests in Quebec, his childhood growing up in an internment camp, and his daughter Severnâs historic speech at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 when she was 12 years-old. “If we donât see that we are utterly embedded in the natural world and dependent on Mother Nature for our very well-being and survival … then our priorities will continue to be driven by man-made constructs like national borders, economies, corporations, markets,” Suzuki says. “Those are all human created things. They shouldnât dominate the way we live. It should be the biosphere, and the leaders in that should be indigenous people who still have that sense that the earth is truly our mother, that it gives birth to us. You donât treat your mother the way we treat the planet or the biosphere today.” [Includes rush transcript]
- Labels: climate change, corporations, economy, nuclear, oil, pollution, science, technology, zeitgeist