Climate Change | Middle River Dispatches

Thinking about the future

Monte Burke did us all a great favor when he gave Todd Tanner, chairman of Conservation Hawks a guest slot in Forbes.com.

Tanner didn’t disappoint.

His ironic Death by Polar Bear points out why making polar bears the symbol for climate change seriously undermines the effort to address the issue.

Here’s a news flash. Nobody in the Lower 48 has ever seen a polar bear in their backyard, or at the local baseball field, or on their way to work. Nobody has seen one frolicking in a meadow or swimming across a river. Which makes the big white bears one of the worst symbols we’ve ever picked for anything, anywhere, at any point in human history. Seriously, this is Marketing 101. If you want to convince Americans they’re in danger, you don’t point toward the North Pole and hand them a pair of binoculars.

Bravo to Tanner for calling bullshit. He nails it. But before you get all warm and fuzzy or outraged, his marketing lesson is just a part of a larger message.
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Tanner thinks before he acts

Todd Tanner doesn’t enter an arena lightly. He is a quiet man with the courage of his convictions. So when he launched Conservation Hawks this week it got my attention.

Tanner thinks sportsmen and women are ignoring climate change at our peril.

“Here’s the God’s honest truth. This is the single most important issue that any of us will ever face. It’s bigger than any threat to sportsmen that’s come down the pipe, and way, way harder to fix. And now we have to make a choice. Either we stand up for our hunting and fishing, and for our kids and grandkids, or we write off everything we’ve ever cared about. That’s the black & white of it, and if you’re reading this, you need to decide exactly where you stand.”

I think he is right. Were do you stand?

Learn more at ConservationHawks.org, on Facebook and on Twitter

Heads in the Sand

New Conservation Group Takes Wing