Focusing Youth on the Relationship Between Weather and Climate for World Meteorological Day 2014

World Meteorological Day is celebrated every year on March 23 and as we experience ever more extreme weather events attributable to climate change, this day has acquired an ominous importance. This year's World Meteorological Day theme is “Weather and climate: engaging youth."

Young people alive today will suffer from even greater impacts from climate change in the second half of the 21st century. So this day is an opportunity to encourage youth to learn more about our weather and climate system and to get involved in efforts to combat climate change. Sadly only a small percentage of people actively engage climate issues, so this day is an opportunity to encourage people to act.

"There is no standstill in global warming," said World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. "The warming of our oceans has accelerated and at lower depths. More than 90 percent of the excess energy trapped by greenhouse gases is stored in the oceans. Levels of these greenhouse gases are at record levels, meaning that our atmosphere and oceans will continue to warm for centuries to come.

Event - Beyond Green Environmental Youth Summit

Beyond Green Environmental Youth Summit will take place on Friday October 25 to Sunday October 27, 2013, in Toronto, Ontario. This event is from Earth Day Canada's Ecomentors and will take place at the University of Toronto. This summit will explore environmental issues from every angle and develop strategies to spark change in your community. Whatever your passion, there is a path. Whether you’re an artist, scientist, frontline activist, or new to the scene, Beyond Green provides the techniques, tools, and connections you need to take action.

Event - Power Shift 2013: Youth Conference Convenes to Fight Climate Change

Power Shift 2013 will take place October 18 - 21st in Pittsburgh, PA. There are expected to be 10,000+ youth leaders converging on Pittsburgh to combat climate change and fight for the future. Young people will come together from all walks of life including college students, young environmental justice leaders, DREAMers, young people of faith, and young workers. At this conference attendees will learn from one another and go back to their communities where they will build and launch strategic campaigns.

Issues on the agenda include the fight against fracking, and the Keystone XL pipeline. They will also address the issues of divestment from fossil fuels, clean energy, and of course, the climate crisis.

Video: Leadnow Interview on CPAC

In this March 3rd 2011 interview, Leadnow co-founders Jamie Biggar and Adam Shedletzsky appear on CPAC's Prime Time Politics. As discussed in the interview, young people are increasingly apolitical, but Leadnow wants to put the power of social media to work to encourage young voters to exercise their democratic rights. Although Leadnow is a nonpartisan organization, their efforts could significantly change the political landscape. As Chantal Hébert, said in Le Devoir, on april 4, 2011, "In Canada, the current Conservative Party would have much less chance of coming back to power and almost no chance of winning a majority if the youngest portion of the electorate voted in large numbers on May 2."

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Tea Party's Climate Change Denial

Tea Party supporters deny the existence of climate change and oppose any attempt to regulate emissions. Despite their distrust of science and resistance to civil debate, the Tea Party's crusade is gaining momentum. Republican organizers are hoping to channel Tea Party anger into electing a conservative Congress in 2010 and a conservative president in 2012. The Tea Party movement began about a year ago as a protest against government bailouts and health care legislation. Starting last Thursday and culminating this weekend, the first national Tea Party convention was fittingly held at Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center. Tea Party conservatives resent the Democrats stimulus spending even though it staved off economic collapse and helped to pull the world out of recession. Tea Party attendees tend to frame issues in terms of the choice between free markets and Marxist-Socialism. Many argue that conservative policies are counter indicated by current realities. The climate crisis, recession, and geopolitical situation require bold leadership not laissez faire capitalism. Unlike last year's Tea Parties this years inaugural National Tea Party Convention had no posters comparing Obama to Hitler or Stalin. However, the punch lines were toned down variations of the same old propaganda. On Friday, Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Website WorldNetDaily, opened his speech at the Tea Party convention with jokes about the President's citizenship and was met with a thunderous ovation of approval. Tea Party supporters proudly proclaimed their support for Tom Tancredo who blamed illiterate voters for putting a "committed Socialist ideologue" in the White House. Former congressman Tom Tancredo stirred up controversy with his opening night speech Thursday. He called for making literacy tests a prerequisite for voting, like the banned Jim Crow laws that prevented many blacks from voting prior to the introduction of civil rights legislation. Tea party convention organizer Judson Phillips called Tancredo’s speech “fantastic.” A Tea Party supporter recounted organizing a bowling party which he called "Knock Down the Pinheads of Communism." A strike equaled Mao, a spare, Pol Pot. The Tea Party Convention speakers included Judge Roy Moore, the judge who fought to keep a monument of the Ten Commandments outside his courthouse and is now running for Alabama governor. President Obama "has ignored our history and our heritage by denying we are a Christian nation," Moore said. As reported in Politics Daily, Tea Party supporter and global warming skeptic Steve Milloy called modern environmentalism, "tatalitarianism." Milloy and other Tea Party failthfuls are not only critical of Democrats, they criticize Republicans who work with Democrats. South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham was criticized for cooperating with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on climate change legislation; California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's environmental efforts had Milloy calling for "reverse immigration." Milloy, who runs the website junkscience.com, questioned the sanity and morality of cap and trade supporters, whom he called "bad people." Tea party supporters are trying to use social media to help promote their agenda, but unlike Obama's supporters, most supporters of the Tea Party Movement are too old to understand how to make the most of this technology. Apparently the youth are not much interested in Tea Parties. The core of Tea Party supporters are still angry old conservatives whose passion precludes the facts. They say they are angry because of the growth of the federal government and President Obama's policies. Truth is, the average age of the Tea Party supporters speaks volumes. Perhaps they are angry because they cannot keep pace with a rapidly changing world.

Making Mobile Marketing Work for Your Business: Interactive Digital Marketing For the Young and the Not So Young

New media is enabling marketers to target a wide-ranging group of highly interactive and motivated consumers. This is the first in a series of seven posts on mobile marketing. This post reviews some of the key features of the digital environment that are fueling mobile's growth.

As reported in a recent Adage article, "Interactive- and digital-marketing budgets have experienced a healthy increase. The first quarterly Epsilon CMO Survey reveals that nearly two-thirds of chief marketing officers said their interactive/digital marketing budgets have increased in the past year, while 60% have seen their traditional advertising budgets go south. The findings reflect marketers' growing need to better target their campaigns, according to Steve Cone, CMO of Epsilon. The results show that because of the economy, companies are really trying to identify the consumers that are very active in communicating with each other through social computing, blogging or podcasting. The more popular interactive and digital channels that marketers said they are keen to start experimenting with are social computing (42%), which includes word-of-mouth, social-networking sites and viral advertising; blogs (35%); podcasting (31%); and mobile devices (29%), which include phones and PDAs. The study found that some marketers have already started incorporating these tactics, with 19% of respondents already using blogs, 18% making use of podcasting and 22% using mobile devices as part of their marketing mixes. Blogging is a major activity among a relatively educated, affluent and not-as-young-as-you-would-imagine age group. And when you're talking about podcasting and mobile devices, that's a younger demographic. Marketers are trying to target the broadest age range of consumers, and that's reflected in how these break down from top to bottom. You can find hundreds of thousands of people who are really active in these areas, and they are going to be extremely receptive to offers of relevance. The study also revealed that CMOs are relying on analytics, CRM techniques and other measurable marketing strategies when determining who they want to go after."

Of all digital media, mobile is the channel that is growing most rapidly. As reported in Mobile Marketer "It’s no exaggeration to say that mobile advertising is about to revolutionize the way that marketers reach out to consumers for branding or customer acquisition or customer retention purposes. A well-targeted mobile ad campaign will strengthen bonds between brand and consumer." Mobile Web usage was up 29.4 percent from the first quarter of this year to the second. There are many reasons why Mobile marketing is destined to keep growing including the fact that mobile is a less expensive, targeted channel in an uncluttered medium.

As reported in a recent Mobile Marketer article, "A common theme voiced by mobile marketers is that to get high response rates from young consumers, they have to issue a simple, [clear]direct call-to-action that is tied to an appealing incentive and with the need to be informed that they have the ability to opt out at any time. The call-to-action must [offer] a direct incentive that is related to some type of prize or reward. The messaging of the campaign should be very straightforward and feed control to the respondent."

While the youth demographic may be the most receptive to mobile campaigns, other groups are catching on quickly. According to Dan Miller, the executive vice president of Neighborhood America. “Mobile phones are the one common device that we have with us all the time, and the youth demographic is key, but its appeal is extending across all demographics. Over time, mobile is appealing to broader and broader demographics, from older people and high-end, high net worth all the way down to blue-collar workers—the complete socio-economic spectrum...”

Digital marketing is tapping into new communication trends. In this downturn, the metrics that come with digital tactics are crucial and a significant reason why this demand is increasing. The way you approach the call to action is also important, particularly with younger audiences. However, as noted above, interactive digital's base is not exclusive to the young as it is growing accross many age demographics. In the digital marketing milieu, mobile is emerging as the hottest commodity in the expanding digital marketing universe.

Next: Understanding the Differences Between Mobile and Online Marketing / Research Your Target / Presentation Tips / Design Tips / Applications and Video / Key Success Factors