You’ll Want to Be a Part of This

Written by Dave Gardner on November 30, 2016. Posted in Blog

Together, we’ll find the cure for growth addiction.

It’s tempting to write that growthbusting is not for amateurs. After all, that proton energy pack on my back for trapping growth profiteers is very powerful. You do not want the beams to cross!

“Are we doomed?”

The truth, though, is that we all need to be involved in growthbusting. If you don’t join me in this growthbusting effort, we are doomed. That said, I know you have a day job. My day job is finding the cure to growth addiction. Sometimes that involves confronting growth profiteers and telling them…

“Yippee-ki-yay, mother&^%$#@.”

Mainly, it is doing everything we can to mainstream post-growth thinking. I did raise my hand and volunteer to lead the charge (there are other sustainability leaders, too, thankfully). So, if you’re NOT going to quit your day job, don a proton energy pack, and go after growth boosters and profiteers on a daily basis, let me suggest the next best thing: Join GrowthBusters and support the important work we do.

Yes, you will need to give up 1.5 lattes per month if you have no other funds to steer in this direction. On the plus side, giving up the occasional coffee will be good for your teeth and gut, your contribution qualifies for charitable tax deduction in the U.S., and you’ll be joining an effort to leave all the world’s children a world worth inheriting. We’re also ramping up efforts to help growthbusters like you make a difference. You can simply pitch in financially, empowering us to do what we do. But you can also roll up your sleeves and do some of the work. It’s up to you. Look at the membership levels and you’ll see how we’re planning to be a gathering place for people who want to help move the world from “more, more, more” to “enough.” Your participation is welcome! Together, we can make a difference.

Now, whether you’re a working stiff or a multimillionaire, you want your membership to be a worthwhile investment. So, here is a quick list, followed by more detail, of what we’re doing and what we’re about to do, with your help:

• Conversation Earth Radio Series & Podcast
• Paving Paradise Podcast
• Growth Bias Busted Media Analysis Project
• Short Films
• New Webinar Series
• New Radio Stories Project
• New Poster Project
• Presentations
• Media Interviews

Holy Mother Teresa, Batman! That is quite a list!

Imagine what we’ll accomplish if we can pull this off. But we can only do it if you come along on the journey. Please become a member and make this a reality. You can schedule a modest, automatic, monthly charge to your credit card or checking account, or you can contribute annually in one lump sum. If you’re “all-in” and don’t need to read all the details, join here. If you want to know more, read on…

Here are the details:

• Conversation Earth Radio Series & Podcast  A syndicated weekly radio series and podcast, exploring our place on the planet. It explores the most critical questions of our time. Interviews feature such luminaries as Dennis Meadows, Stephanie Mills, Paul Ehrlich, Juliet Schor, and William Catton. We launched this syndicated radio series and podcast 14 months ago. Season one episodes were carried on over 30 radio stations across the U.S. They are available here to stream or download as podcasts anytime. Help us launch season 2 in January.

• Paving Paradise Podcast  Does your city have a “grow or die” mentality? Policymakers, journalists and boosters too often assume expansion of a city, state or nation leads to prosperity. This podcast debunks the prosperity from growth mythology, examines the rationality of public policies incentivizing growth, and digs to reveal who is pulling the strings in communities around the world. Find it here.

• Growth Bias Busted Media Analysis Project  Most reporting and commentary in the news media about economic growth and population growth is founded on the cultural myth that endless expansion is both possible and desirable. We created this website to encourage accurate reporting and commentary on issues of growth in population, economies and consumption. Growth Bias Busted spotlights examples of pro-growth bias on its “Wall of Shame,” and celebrates balanced and accurate reporting on its “Wall of Fame.” In the process, media consumers learn to spot pro-growth bias, diminishing its power.

• Think Small Family Stickers  Yes, I got tired of seeing huge stick-figure families on the rear windows of Chevy Suburbans here in the U.S. It is time to make small-families a point of pride. So I designed a set of stickers. We have them, and you need to be displaying them. Head to our store to get yours. We’ve got Childfree, Stopped at Zero, Stopped at One, and Stopped at Two.

• Short Films  The GrowthBusters YouTube channel offers a steady stream of short, catchy videos that viewers share on Facebook, journalists feature in newscasts, and activists show at gatherings. Endangered Species Condoms, Interviewer Gets Slapped, A Word for Stephen Colbert, Attack of the Zombie Shoppers and Economists Gone Wild are just a few of over 100 titles on the channel. One video, Spaceship Earth Passenger Safety Briefing, was selected to screen at the 2015 Wild & Scenic Film Festival.

• New Webinar Series  We recently launched this series to share leading thinking with sustainability advocates and the newly curious. Our goal is to share information, perspectives and best practices, and provide community and mutual support for sustainability advocates and activists. The next one is December 14. Learn more and register here.

• New Radio Stories Project  The news media are today’s version of storytellers around the campfire. As such, they are responsible for perpetuating the myth that growth is necessary for prosperity. Well, if you can’t fight them, join them. Rather than just continue beating our head against a brick wall in an effort to get better, more accurate media reporting about growth issues, we’re putting together a collaborative to produce and distribute radio reports that provide more accurate news about demographic changes, and the global and national economies.

• New Poster Project  Remember those old Ad Council commercials and magazine ads: “This is your brain; this is your brain on drugs”? Concerted public awareness campaigns successfully got us to buckle our seatbelts, prevent forest fires, stop littering, and just say no to drugs. Imagine such a campaign encouraging young couples to limit their offspring. Imagine posters in the break room advising we repair rather than replace, leave our car in the garage, or scale back on air travel. We’ll be developing attention-grabbing graphics and messages for the poster project, in a unique effort to make truly sustainable behavior front of mind.

• Presentations  As a committed anti-growth evangelist, if someone puts up a tent, I will come and preach – the gospel of sustainability. I should probably insist on an honorarium for every speaking engagement, but many groups just cannot make that happen. Sometimes the GrowthBusters project gets a little financial reward when I speak; sometimes we just get the warm feeling that comes with spreading the truth. Contact me to arrange an appearance in your school or community.

• Media Interviews  As a mass media guy I recognize the value of leveraging one conversation with a talk-show host or reporter into truthful vibes debunking growth mythology on car radios across a metropolis, a country, or the world. I accept all invitations to share what I’ve learned. Along with dozens of local and statewide radio interviews, I’ve been on the Australian ABC radio network, the Pacifica radio network, the immensely popular Coast to Coast syndicated radio show, and the Al Jazeera English cable network. If the GrowthBusters project is flush, we can engage the services of a publicist to secure many more interviews.

Yes, this is a lot. You might assume there is a staff of 6 or 8 here at GrowthBusters World Headquarters, brainstorming every morning on a whiteboard in the conference room and spending the rest of every day executing on these powerful initiatives. Much as I’d like you to believe that, the truth is that we currently have no employees. I’m not even drawing a paycheck at present. Clearly I can’t do this work in even mediocre fashion alone. I am ready to assemble a small team that will get this done. That’s where you come in.

Here’s how this works:

1. You join. Become a member. Choose the highest support level you can afford. Don’t worry; it will feel very good! Not that it’s really important to you, but we do our best to offer you some neat perks at each level. If extra legroom is important to you, I suggest the Strategy Council level. Great thing is you can sign up for automatic monthly recurring membership contributions from your credit card or checking account.
2. I do a super-human job as steward of your contributions, managing volunteers where that works, hiring interns, contractors and even regular employees as resources permit. We build a creative boutique, an ad agency whose only clients are Mother Earth and her inhabitants (including Human Civilization).
3. We change the world. Maybe we’ll throw a party when we finish.
4. Lather
5. Rinse
6. Repeat

Please join today, and let’s see if we can’t rock this world!

Thank you,

Dave Gardner
Director, GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth

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