Government launch £6 million climate change advertising campaign

• Oct. 21 by Emma Williams (0)

In a desperate bid to cut carbon emissions, the Government have launched a whopping £6 million advertising campaign.

The prime-time television advert currently being aired nationwide provides a stark warning that climate change will have a major and devastating impact on the world, during the lifetime of today’s children.
If you haven’t seen it yet, the minute-long feature shows a father reading his young daughter a bedtime story, with a difference.
The story supposedly depicts what will happen to the world if climate change continues the way it’s going, and is complete with pictures of Co2 emissions forming a sinister looking creature made of soot, hovering above a town.
The father narrates: “It was the children of the land who would have to live with the horrible consequences. The grownups realised they would have to do something.”
Viewers are then directed to the Government’s Act on Co2 website, where they are encouraged to “find out what you can do to reduce your carbon footprint”.

I wanted to get a local view on the matter from someone who knows what they’re talking about better than myself, so I spoke to Joe Peacock, head of Birmingham’s “Friends of the Earth” campaign group. He told me he was “glad that the Government are putting something high-profile out there to try and convince people that action is needed on living a low-carbon way.”

However, not all feel the same way as Joe.
The advert has provoked controversy due to its harshly unsubtle message and eagerness to place blame on the “grown-ups” in our society.
An article in the Daily Mail on Tuesday (October 20^th) branded the “bedtime story” as “a terrifying account of drowning puppies, rabbits dying of thirst and the end of the world as we know it” and says that over 200 complaints have been lodged with the Advertising Standards Authority about the advert.
Critics of the advert believe it is presenting opinion as fact; whether climate change is man-made being the opinion in question.
Users of the Daily Mail forum as a majority dismiss the advert’s claims calling it “alarmist propaganda”. Joshua Daniels, who commented on The Times Online said:

“Truly psychotic. A huge ad campaign designed to create emotional acceptance of a deliberate lie: that paying a tax will somehow solve a climate problem.”

And he is not the only one. Many people believe that the Government are pushing the issues of climate change and global warming upon us unnecessarily in order to justify charging businesses Sustainability and Climate Change Tax.

On the counteracting argument, Environmental Campaigner Joe dismisses these views, stating that they are ignoring basic scientific facts:

“To be honest, those people just need to wake up and look at the science. It is very clear and 99% of Climate Scientists are in complete agreement that Climate Change is due to man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is very sad that people are so blinkered by ideological concerns that they reject any idea of restricting actions which damage us all in favour of free markets and individual freedoms. The same kinds of people who disseminate misinformation about climate science were also employed by tobacco firms to say there was nothing wrong with smoking.”

On the Act on Co2 website we can read:
“The UK faces unprecedented challenges to our environment, our economy, and the future security of our energy supplies. The decisions we make now will affect the planet and our way of life for generations to come.”
- Department of Energy and Climate Change.

But are the Government putting their money where their mouth is?
The website describes various steps Ministers are taking to help climate change, including setting measurable targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases and introducing five-year “carbon budgets”.
Furthermore, the website offers five key initiatives regarding climate change which the Government have pledged to take action on.
Whether these initiatives will be followed through and whether the targets will be met, however, is still to be seen.
The advert certainly does pull on the heartstrings for any parent out there, but is it simply propaganda, a Government ploy?
I personally don’t think so.
It aimed to raise awareness on issues surrounding climate change, and with the controversy it has sparked it has certainly achieved this, although perhaps not in the way the Government had hoped.
But there is no doubt on one matter; getting a reaction has to be better than being ignored completely; and the advertisement has certainly done that.

What do you think?