#13 ???? live the change

G'day

We are heading into week 6 of lockdown in Europe. It's long.

Thoughts are of getting "back to normal" and recovery. Yet it is likely that this crisis will both continue for a long time, and change things forever. This week - the permanent step change to come.

ABOVE THE FOLD

???? live the change

BELOW THE FOLD

• ?? ??earth day
• ??????lockdown liveaid
• ????????coronavirus disinfo
• ?????????? and finally... copywriters. Sort your lives out

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ABOVE THE FOLD

????live the change

There are many things people want back after lockdowns begin to be lifted.

Jobs and mobility, privacy, liberty, security. School. Please school. Soon.

Yet there are some things that people do not want to lose as the economy stirs back to life:

• Lower greenhouse gas emissions. As I write, US oil traders are paying $25 a barrel to people to take the black stuff off their hands - that's how low demand has fallen. Low prices for fossil fuels make it more challenging to decouple economic growth from carbon emissions, yet it must be done.
• Cleaner Air. No suprise that with a respiratory disease like COVID-19, air pollution is a key contributor to outcomes.

Milan has already announced it will be turning 35 km of roads over to pedestrians and cyclists as a result of the lockdown.

• The reemergence of nature, as wild animals and fish are seen where humans usually dominate;
• wfh;
• Respect for essential workers, with healthcare workers, teachers and others' position in society elevated where it should be;
• Economics that prioritises health over wealth. Lockdown governments have taken a choice to prioritize human health and life over economic activity. Imagine if such different measures of worth were applied across the economy.
• A spirit of community solidarity. Even in America, where guns stores are considered essential services, almost half say that America now feels more united than before the pandemic and 82% say that "we have more in common than what divides us”.

If you were to live the change you want to see in the world, now may be that time.

Do you think you will change your values and the way you live your life as a result of this experience? Are you looking forward to getting "back to normal"? Leave a comment below or DM me for discussion.

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????earth day

Tomorrow Wednesday April 22 is the 50th annual Earth Day. Here is a photo of the first one in 1970:

20 million people participated in this event across the US, and it was made possible because, in an earlier communications revolution, the United Auto Workers Union provided a 1-800 number for organizers to coordinate.

There won't be anyone out on the streets for Earth Day, or anything else much tomorrow. But the event has gone global, and virtual:

Over the 24 hours of Earth Day, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day will fill the digital landscape with global conversations, calls to action, performances, video teach-ins and more.

This might sound all a little hand wavey when what is needed is political action. While COVID-19 tears our economy and society apart, the planet is still boiling. The first quarter of this year: The warmest January in recorded history, the second-warmest February, and its second-hottest March on record. The Climate isn't stabilizing anytime soon.

There has never been a greater need for an Earth Day, and if you are reading this and thus have an internet connection, you too can participate. Mass action can make a difference - see Together at Home below.

Join Earth Day. Here's what's going on around the world, and here's how to share on social.

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??????lockdown liveaid

In case your lip curled a bit at participating in an online event like Earth Day 2020, perhaps you missed the biggest online event ever last weekend. Global Citizen's Together at Home concert featured eight hours of with global talent performing from their bedrooms, with Lady Gaga hosting.

It was broadcast across multiple platforms, including, for 2 hours, the three American TV networks. Viewing figures: 14.6 million people on US TV, the YouTube stream has more than 24 million views, a Twitter stream of the event had 8.8 million viewers; an abbreviated stream on Lady Gaga's Facebook page another 8.5 million. And it was on radio all over the world, Amazon Prime and more. 

The event raised $128 million for frontline workers and the World Health Organization's Solidarity Response Fund. Weirdly, it is almost the exact amount Live Aid raised in 1985 - about $300 million in today's dollars - for the famine in Ethiopia.

I loved Together at Home. Did you?

????????coronavirus disinfo

Last week the UN Secretary-General announced an anti-misinformation campaign for COVID-19 designed to flood the internet with science and facts.

"Innoculating" people against misinformation is one way to prevent conspiracy theories spreading.

This is made all the more difficult, though, when its the actual government apparently doing the misinformation:

Some bright spark (read: criminal) in the UK's Department of Health and Social Care, taking a leaf from Russia's Internet Research Agency seems to have set up not one but 128 different accounts using image and names of NHS nurses, propagandizing for first the UK Government's "herd immunity" strategy, now discredited, then for the country to "open up again".

The UK government has form on this, dubbing the central conservative party's press account "FactcheckUK".

When people show you who they are, believe them.

That's a quote from Maya Angelou.

I'm hoping truth and science emerge winners from the coronavirus crisis. Where do you get your trustworthy information from?

?????????? and finally... copywriters, sort your lives out

TV commercial copywriters have had a collective failure of imagination.

Thanks for reading. Please do click like and share this newsletter - keep me coming back each week.