Emotional ad shows that climate change is ‘robbing our children of a safe and beautiful world’
The nonpartisan group Science Moms says the ad campaign showing the harms of climate change to children is bipartisan and aimed at educating the public about the effects of climate change.
A child walks through a flooded street in Immokalee, a rural migrant worker town that was one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Irma.
Spencer Pratt/Getty Images
privacy policy The impacts of climate change on children will be the focus of a new $2.5 million advertising campaign in six battleground states.
Science Moms, a nonpartisan group founded by climate scientists in 2021, has launched a campaign linking global warming to “man-made disasters” — floods, wildfires and other extreme weather — and highlighting their impacts on families.
“Climate sounds like a big, intractable problem, but in reality, protecting our children is a much more personal issue and much more relevant to this moment and the choices we make,” said JoEllen Russell, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona.
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“Man-made disasters caused by climate change are destroying the places we love and robbing our children of the safe, beautiful world they deserve,” she said. “They are forever altering our children’s memories. The things we had as children that we cannot give to our own children because they are unavailable.”
Russell co-founded Science Moms with Texas Tech University professor Katherine Hayhoe, Columbia University professor Ruth DeFreese and other climate researchers to raise awareness of the importance of climate change to the general public.
Russell said the group initially tried to target mothers, but for the past three years has focused on families “because we’re all concerned about kids.”
The 60-second ad, “The Last Time,” tells the story of how climate impacts like wildfires and floods could alter childhood milestones.
“What would you do if you knew this was your last family trip to your favorite campsite before it was gone?” the narrator asks, before showing news footage of recent wildfires and floods. “What would you do if you knew this was your last, best chance to protect the place you love?”
The ads will air in Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia through September 30. They will also appear on TV and radio stations, streaming services like Hulu and Max, and online on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
Those states will be key in the race for control of the White House and the Senate, but Science Moms leaders say their goal is to educate people about serious threats to their health and safety. The group also advertises in California and other states even in non-election years.
“We need everyone’s cooperation. This is not something we just want to discuss with one political party,” Russell said.
Science Mums is a nonprofit that does not disclose its donors but says it has received funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Grantham Foundation, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott and former Nature Conservancy CEO Mark Tercek.
“Science Moms” is a campaign by the climate-focused advertising agency Potential Energy Coalition.
Reprinted from E&E News Posted with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News delivers news that matters to energy and environmental professionals.
