Friday, June 17, 2011

A Reality Pitch: Carbon Footprint Awareness

After watching the film The Age of Stupid, I found myself so worked up over the sheer idiocy of local people portrayed. Especially regarding the wind turbines in England: the woman who was so proud of their victory in committee against non-polluting energy.. Yeah, you should be so proud of yourself! You've sped up our course to extinction. I'm sure your great-great grandkids will be thanking you for that perfect view of an empty field when natural resources have plummeted and it's far too late to turn back. 

I believe there is only one way to get simple-minded folk like that's attention. I recalled that new reality show Extreme Couponing (I'm cringing for mankind right now). Ever since that show debuted, and people saw the money that these women saved, couponing has actually increased. Hooray for consumerism.

People need to realize what trouble we're really in. To raise awareness, I got an idea, so hear me out, classmates. There should be a reality show where a team visits families and shows them their personal carbon footprint. They tell them what lies down the road in 30 years if their habits keep up, and how to reduce their footprint. 
It can be hosted on TLC, like all other good reality shows that the older crowd watch, and a good, charismatic host can convince people they are wrong. Hell, maybe even wrangle in a celebrity for the cause. If anything, people will become aware of their emissions just to see if so-and-so celebrity is going to visit their house.

It needs an attention-grabbing name, and I was never one for naming things. As media students in this day and age, we can bring awareness like this! Don't you think it's our duty? Of course we can sit back and live a peaceful life, consuming selfishly, and never think about the consequences. Wouldn't you rather try and make a difference for the future?

3 comments:

  1. While I agree that overconsumerism is a bad thing, consumerism itself is the backbone of our economy, so altering it much without thinking how it will affect economic conditions would be short sighted.

    However, there have been shows about carbon footprints and I don't know if you remember there was a big concert televised all over a few years back about going green and carbon footprints, etc. However, unfortunately no one watched, it's sad but it seems that people don't care about carbon footprints when watching t.v.

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  2. I agree with Jason. The U.S. does overconsume, but at this point it's kind of a necessary evil. Without the economy would spiral worse than it did a few years ago and still hasn't come back from.

    People watch t.v. to be entertained, not educated. Biggest Loser comes to mind in that your show could be like that. Call it "Green or Mean" and have Hulk Hogan be the host. (He is the Hulk anyway. Think about it for a second.) If you don't reduce your carbon footprint enough, you go a round with the Hulk. Hulk Smash Pollution!

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  3. You'd also have to broadcast to a younger audience if you really want to make a difference that is going to stick with the viewers and still have an impact long after the show. We need to emphasize recycling young as that it just seems like another part of everyday life.

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