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Many people have had that “a-ha” second after we realized that one thing we had been studying, listening to, or watching that was anti-sustainability or anti clear power or anti EV was only a bit….off. That second after we stated, “wait a minute, I know that’s not true,” and acknowledged that there was a motive behind the message.
FUD (Worry, Uncertainty, and Doubt) is ubiquitous. The fossil business spends huge to decelerate the adoption of fresh know-how. It’s merely an funding — slowing clear tech means prolonging the revenue of soiled tech. And since they don’t have a leg to face on scientifically or logically, they use FUD, enjoying to base instincts of the human primate mind.
I first acknowledged it once I noticed an Instagram influencer promote a put up that stated that some individuals may come go to your private home providing to put in free power and water saving gadgets. The put up concluded, “Plz do NOT let them into your homes. They are Robbers robbing people at gun-point. Plz alert all your contacts, as you may save a life.”
This was about 10 years in the past. On the time, my firm was employed by our native power conservation program to enter houses and set up free LEDs and different excessive effectivity fixtures in decrease revenue houses and areas the place the utility was making an attempt to scale back demand moderately than construct extra producing capability and substations in that space. We had, on the time, gone into greater than 3,000 such houses, by no means charging the resident a dime, not to mention robbing anybody at gunpoint. This influencer was in our hometown, or so her profile stated, and our firm was the one residential contractor doing such a low revenue and power conservation work. I reached out to her instantly, however obtained no response.
On the time, there have been many people who refused to allow us to in, and irrespective of what number of instances we tried to inform them, “There’s no catch, it’s paid for by utility money,” and irrespective of what number of constructive Yelp opinions we had, it didn’t matter. They had been gung-ho that we might by no means enter their house and so they wished us off their property asap. We had thought, most likely drug sellers. LOL. However then it occurred to me — possibly these of us had seen this warning.
Because it turned out, the Instagram influencer was not actual. In all probability the fiction of some Russian child dwelling in his Mother’s basement, getting paid to be a fossil gasoline troll. And it occurred to me — that child was slowing the clear tech revolution. Actually slowing down the discount of fossil fuels being utilized by our utility.
Should you assume I’m a wackadoodle, think about that the identical message unfold group to group to group to group. What number of houses missed out on free LEDs due to this message? Arduous to even guess.
We all know from the film The Social Dilemma that pretend information spreads quick, after which must be offset a median of six instances by fact to get the individual to cease believing what they first noticed, particularly in the event that they’re inclined to imagine. So the FUD preyed on individuals who may be vulnerable to this sort of factor, and stopped…a sure proportion…from doing power and water conservation work.
So what can we do? Educate individuals concerning the many types of FUD, the right way to spot it, and the right way to struggle it.
So, you probably have some expertise with this of any sort (e.g., have you ever heard that wind turbine blades are unrecyclable? OMG, the humanity! What’s going to we do with this stuff in 40 years once they’re not working to create clear power!? We actually must let that cease us from growing wind farms RIGHT NOW…face-palm), then please fill within the quick survey under. We’ll publish some outcomes from this and assist put an finish to this BS.
