I would like to focus today on the human side of climate change, and specifically water- Clean, flowing, accessible water.

I was a guest on a radio show recently, and was asked ” Does climate change really exist?”  It was followed by the question…..can each person really make a difference.  I was surprised that people are still asking these questions. I told the listeners that I am not a scientist, but I believe there are a lot of credible scientists and reports that confirm that yes…..climate change is happening.

I get personal confirmation from my friend Mary, who lives in Alaska. A documentary film maker and photographer, Mary is always documenting the world. The photos I receive regularly are both beautiful and haunting. Dry areas that used to be wet… icebergs melting….. Water……..

Back to the radio show…as I was formulating an answer, I got a visual image of john doe, regular citizen driving to get coffee every morning, which gets served in a paper cup; I then imagine him finishing the last sip of coffee and tossing his empty paper cups into the backseat of his car. Imagine what his car looks like at the end of the year…..now multiply that by all the things he [and you] consume………….. Car overflowing with junk….no room for the driver…leaving a trail of junk…….that is infringing on neighbors…

I ask anyone who isn’t convinced to Act As If…..isn’t it better to take restorative and preventive measures than not? I invite you to design your life and your work to Act As If.

According to 28 leading scientists…..

A recent post on Discover blogs entitled 9 Eco Rules Humans Shouldn’t Break if We Want To Survive, “28 leading scientists have drawn up a list of nine “planetary boundaries” that must not be crossed if we want to avoid drastically changing the global environment and imperiling our own existence. The only problem is, we’ve already crossed three of those thresholds.”  Read the rest of the post

Water – One billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water. That’s one in six of us.

I recently attended a great marketing seminar that had participants donate money to charity: water to help build wells in 3rd world countries that have limited/no access to clean water. We raised enough money by the end of the conference to build 2 wells! We all left feeling very proud!

Charity: Water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. We give 100% of the money raised to direct project costs, funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need. Just $20 can give one person in a developing nation clean water for 20 years.

I invite you to join me and build another well, or two or three…. together. Please donate here

To find out more about Blog Action Day

Becoming official and being added to the dictionary doesn’t’ mean a word or phrase isn’t commonly used and recognized. It just reminded me that as marketers we often forget that we are not necessarily our customers, and need to keep that in mind with every communication.

The best marketing resonates with customers and makes them feel we are speaking directly to them. Miss the mark with language that seems foreign to them or like jargon and you can alienate them.

Its easy to lose perspective of whether a term or phrase is jargon or has moved into common usage with our audience, particularly if you live, breath and work in a niche. It’s your job to be up to date on trends, news…and you are probably a bit ahead of most of your audience, making it hard to keep it all in perspective. That is not to say there aren’t very savvy audiences out there on the cutting edge. The key is to really know your audience.

Social media such as blogs and twitter give us an incredible opportunity to have ongoing conversations in real time with our audience and read exactly what words and terms they speak/write in.

The real question for marketers is not when does a term become official, but when is it commonly used and accepted into the familiar language our target audience speaks.

gdniftu8ah