Tomorrow a Sea of People will vividly demonstrate the potential of catastrophic climate change in lower Manhattan simply by getting together and wearing blue shirts. I love this idea as it combines many of the principles of Marketing for Good (engage, enlighten, inspire and even entertain) into one huge press worthy, GoogleEarthy punctuation point. The blogging community has embraced this event with numerous posts:
No Impact Man (see early MFG post) noted:
Treehugger predicts that this Saturday, April 14, at 12 noon, New York City will have the biggest environmental event since the first Earth Day in 1970. Get out your blue shirts! Why? Because the New York event, called Sea of People, aims to line up thousands of participants along the predicted climate-change flood lines in Manhattan. The blue-swathed masses will represent the water’s edge (map courtesy of Treehugger).
The Gothamist provides a terrific interview with the organizers of this event. Here’s a brief snippet:
Tell us about Sea of People.
Sea of People is our local contribution to the April 14th Step It Up National Day of Climate Action. The whole campaign focuses on one goal: getting our national politicians to commit to serious action on climate change. Specifically, we’re asking them to mandate an 80% reduction in American carbon emissions by 2050.Here in NYC, we’ll be having a massive rally down in Battery Park, with speakers from a diverse span of fields–youth, scientists, businessmen, politicians, pastors, activists–to breifly touch upon why this political action is urgent. After the rally, participants will stretch into a single line–a ‘Sea of People’–along lower Manhattan’s 10-foot elevation line, or the “future sea level” zone.
When did the idea for it come about?
The goal has always been to create an event on scale with NYC’s size, influence and boundless creative vitality. In early January, Ben and a few other New Yorkers in the “green scene” got an email from the revered environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, who’d come up with the idea for the national campaign. We all got together, worked through a bunch of ideas, and this plan surfaced as the most striking and inspiring.
Streetsblog noted:
Volunteers will form a “Sea of People,” as part of a rally and march that will demarcate the projected eastern and western 10-foot waterlines that may one day redefine lower Manhattan under the ten-foot sea level rise scenario. This is part of the national Step It Up 2007 campaign to raise awareness of climate change.
Marketers would be smart to analyze the Sea of People project and all its implications. It is an inspirational idea that makes it easy for anyone so inclined to participate, to share with friends and family, to be a part of something bigger than themselves. It might not be eco-Woodstock but it is certainly close to eco-Hands Across America. Those who do participate will not just talk about this at the water cooler on Monday but will surely remember it for years to come.