Search Results

All eyes are on Seattle this week as big-wigs (and little-wigs) gather for a two-day climate protection summit organized by the United States Conference of Mayors. Yesterday, Bill Clinton’s keynote address reinforced a message of jobs and hope, economic opportunity, and technological and moral leadership when it comes to fighting climate change. He reminded us that JFK’s challenge to put a man on the moon within a decade back in...

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg just gave a bombshell speech here in Seattle calling for a federal carbon tax. (Full text of the speech is here, scroll down.) First off, way to go Bloomberg! In fact, Sightline’s Anna Fahey has written about Bloomberg’s awesome framing. But now, with my researcher’s hat on, I think it’s worth clarifying a few things. While many of Bloomberg’s arguments in favor of a...

I hate writing about political candidates, and especially presidential ones. But I’m going to do it anyway because I just finished reading Barack Obama’s newly released energy and climate plan. I’ve got to say: I’m stunned. It’s awesome. Among the highlights are a call for 80 percent reductions in emissions below 1990 levels by 2050, which would be accomplished by a cap and trade program. But this is the kicker:...

Over the past week or so, there’s been a big to-do about greater Seattle’s transportation measure—affectionately known as the “RTID”—that’s set to appear on the November ballot. The measure would spend more than $17 billion on new roads, road maintenance, and rail transit, mostly through an increase in sales and vehicle taxes. To many people’s surprise, King County Executive Ron Sims (a former board chair of Sound Transit) came out...

Sightline’s Flashcards distill recent thinking and research into quick, memorable messaging recommendations that can be applied to everyday public communications. For those who want to go a step deeper, we’ve compiled some of the research reports that informed our climate communications checklist. If you have come across a relevant study or an article to share, please send it to Anna Fahey, anna@sightline.org, and we’ll add it to the compendium. FrameWorks...

The gist: Sightline distills current scholarship and top findings from local and national opinion research into three key steps that focus climate change communications on solutions, opportunities, and shared values. The findings include several focus group studies conducted this spring and summer in the Northwest.The checklist helps get us started talking about climate with a more powerful and unified voice. Checklist: 1. Start with SOLUTIONS 2. Seize the OPPORTUNITIES 3....

Climate Communications Checklist 1. SOLUTIONS first 2. Seize the OPPORTUNITIES 3. VALUES are the glue KC Golden, Climate Solutions: “Climate change is the defining challenge of our generation. It’s also the defining opportunity.” (Read more.) Gordon Campbell, Premier, British Columbia, Canada: “Stop procrastinating!” John McCain: “Americans solve problems. We don’t run from them. Cleaner air; greater energy efficiency; a more diverse and secure energy mix, and US leadership in the...

One of the benefits of working in an office full of geeks is that my colleagues, rather than my spouse, bear the brunt of my obsessions over policy minutiae. A little while ago, for example, we had a rollicking debate about whether Sightline’s long-standing opposition to the Home Interest Mortgage Deduction—herein abbreviated as “HIMD”—still makes sense.  (We’re wild and crazy here, I tell you!) Here’s the rundown. On equity grounds, the...

Everyone knows that cars are expensive, right? Still, it may come as a surprise to find out just how much money we spend getting from place to place. The cost of the car itself—typically the second biggest purchase many families make in their lives—is just the start. When you start adding in the cost of gasoline, and car insurance, and maintenance and repairs, and parking, and taxes to build new...

Even National Public Radio spent some air time the other day on cause celèbre, Paris Hilton’s trip to jail, crying jag, and premature trip back home—albeit in a bemused “we’re-actually-above-reporting-this-kind-of-story” tone. Not surprisingly, the Paris saga was among the top five stories reported by American media last week, due only in small part to celebrity gazing briefly taking on a more serious flavor as a “morality tale about double standards...