Memes aren’t just pictures of grumpy cats. They’re (memes, not grumpy cats) another word for ideas. I recently met Joe Brewer, a fascinating Seattleite who studies sustainability memes, in particular. He analyzes data to understand what ideas are out there, where they came from, and how effective they are at spreading into our culture like a virus. When he studied climate change memes, he found that the predominant ways many of us talk about climate change are actually not effective at getting people to rally around the idea of climate change.
In this video, Joe dissects the prevailing climate change message and offers some alternative messaging based on data. This promises to be more effective in his mind, and I agree.
At 3.37 he discusses the five categories of global warming memes: defining, immune deficiency memes, hostile memes, parasitic memes, symbiotic memes.
At 6.03 he says that global warming is a terrible meme because at best it has only infected the minds of only about five percent of the global population to the point of driving behavior.
At 6:45 he dives into five of the tensions of the global warming meme: harmony with the planet, survival, cooperation, momentum and elitism
Joe’s work speaks to me because he’s using data to help people tell stories that matter and resonate. In my own corporate sustainability work, I’ve experienced how data-driven conversations truly engage more people. And, those people are then that much more likely to make the necessary changes in their organizations processes and operations. I’d love to hear if this has been true for you.
Joe Brewer is the co-founder and research director at Culture 2 https://www.culture2inc.com, a culture design lab whose mission is to help good memes spread for the betterment of humanity.