Carl's original email to STT:

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Carl from Sydney Australia here. My interest in global warming goes back to 1993. I was lucky enough to get a seat at one of the two screenings of An Inconvenient Truth here during a recent film festival. General release is not till Semptember. I've been telling anyone who pauses for breath about the movie.

Something else I'm excited about is the new Tesla Roadster. It seems likely that electric cars are about to make a comeback. From a CO2 point of view, this is clearly a good thing. If governments are smart, they will make big incentives to charge these cars overnight on off peak. If it's done right, we can
take CO2 out of the transport industry without adding much to the grid peak demand. i.e. little or no extra coal should be burnt and a lot less oil.

I liked your share the truth idea. A similar idea would be "BuyGeorgeBushATeslaRoadster.com". If 90,000 people world wide gave a dollar... Well, lots of things could happen. There would be a lot of publicity for the car. He might actually see the potential. He might see that we can live without fossil fuels and consider a carbon tax to speed along the change process.

I responded with some possible objections and brainstorming. There are more, of course, but this is a start.

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Hi Carl,

That's very interesting, and I like it. As I'm sure you understand, making our cars electric is definitely not a panacea for our emissions and energy woes, but without the first step of spreading awareness we'll never get anywhere. In other words, it's crazy but it just might work!

You might consider writing ClimateCrisis.net, Paramount's official site for the movie, and pitch your idea. We're talking about almost 240,000 people who've actually visited the site and pledged to see the film on opening weekend--like you said, if they could be talked into giving a dollar each there'd be more than enough. If you mention that there are tons of efforts, grassroots and non, to get this kind of stuff off the ground, such as:

* the team and following behind Who Killed The Electric Car, a new documentary
* stopglobalwarming.org
* ShareTheTruth and at least two other AIT ticket giveaway sites
* the petition to urge GW Bush to see the movie which so far has a modest but I imagine enthusiastic 1401 signatures

The plan is not without its drawbacks though.

First, some people might loathe the idea of buying their "not-my-president" a terrific car. I speculate that those dissatisfied with the current administration, but either unaware of the direness of our climate and energy sitation, or even resistant to electric cars because they are not the cure-all, might actually detest the idea and be vocal about opposing it. And of course, those who like the president are likely not interested at all.

Second, an organization might be unwilling to spread the Tesla idea for fear that their relatively non-partisan existence be tainted by partisanship. I don't know how closely you follow American politics, but there is currently an unprecedented polarity (at least in recent decades) between so-called Republicans (which includes GW Bush) and so-called Democrats and, often, associations or suggestions thereof that one might have tendencies of one political party tend to alienate members of the other party, beginning with its most vocal and unreasonable portion.

Third, an organization might be reluctant to spread the Tesla idea because it underestimates 1) the public's generosity and 2) its ability to organize, prioritize and communicate the set of core values essential to raising awareness about our climate and energy problems. For example, let's say stopglobalwarming.org is preparing to ramp up efforts beyond its "virtual march" and raise money for a particular cause, such as to install a giant space mirror (just an example!). The group might feel that since it is doing hard work to convince people of the space mirror effort, taking on the Tesla effort as well might add to its burden and stifle its potential. There are a variety of ways to address this, in particular that the idea be pitched to communicate broad understanding and farsightedness A) to the organization and B) so that the organization can translate that into a message with just as much understanding and farsightedness for all of its members. For instance, stopglobalwarming.org could ask for donations in a package deal: donate $20, and $3 will go to a movie ticket for someone else, $3 will go to buy a DVD for someone else, $4 will go to implementing green energy alternatives, $9 will go to the space mirror (!), and $1 will go to the GW Bush Tesla fund. Again, just an example, since such a proposal has its own problems.

No cause is without its critics, of course. But I believe you can address a lot of objections right off the bat.

Addendum: I've registered teslaforbush.com so that can be a starting point for getting the link out there.

It could work...but yes, most people i know would rather die than buy Bush an electric car.

But...stranger things have happened. Truth is, now with the internet, the opportunities are limitless. It does have to be something new and interesting, though...and this idea is just off the wall enough..