[Coral-List] Education of the masses

[buiscuil]

Hi coral-listers,

my humble thoughts...
I agree that there is no need to re-invent the wheel and that many already
work hard to educate the masses. Nonetheless I believe the main idea
promoted by Antares in its original post was REALLY interesting: talk simple
to people. Although it does affect me and you, I seriously doubt that
messages promoting the idea that 'coral reefs are fragile ecosystems and
they support millions of people through fisheries and services, blabla' have
a serious effect on the masses. If you don't believe me, ask them or just
look by yourself around you. People in general are not really interested in
ecosystems and less in fisheries. We live in a fast-lived world and people
do not like to spend more than a couple of seconds reading or hearing
something they do not have a clue about. Antares' main idea was to come back
to the basis and to reach everyone. We have to think of the reasons that
made us interested by the reefs in the first place: 1. THEY ARE NOT ROCKS,
2. THEY ARE PRETTY, 3. WE WERE ABLE TO OBSERVE THEM DIRECTLY. etc.

So yes, we can use all the media all you guys talk about (including
superbowl if god will, but also regular airing times or messages coke's cans
-they have to account for the millions of aluminum cans finishing in our
oceans after all-), but WE HAVE TO SIMPLIFY THE MESSAGE for massive
campaigns, more than ten words to read is boring!

I would add that putting free reef tanks everywhere is an excellent idea
(they are hypnotizing :)) and taking politics and their families in the
water (my apologies, I forgot the name of the member who suggested it) is a
definite good variation of this idea...

Cheers,

Pascal Mege,
PhD candidate, Univ. of Puerto Rico