Activists fighting against climate change could learn much from the tactics of anti-smoking campaigners, argues Audrey Schulman in our Soapbox section. The tobacco war has been fought on many fronts, but perhaps the most important was the concerted publicity campaign that changed the images people associate with smoking. It’s no longer romantic, no longer “cool.” When people pick up a pack now, they’re likely to think of blackened lungs and lying tobacco execs. The war against global warming must be fought in the same manner. We need to change the images associated with fossil-fuel use — fewer rugged individualists in Hummers and more asthma-wracked children. Schulman tells us how it might be done — only on the Grist Magazine website.
