Plenty of thought from me on this. First, its hard. Second, you are right preaching is tempting but just because we are in a serious situation it dosent make this approach any more effective, everyone who preaches about anything does so because they feel it is important. Thirdly, example works really well, how about buying solar pannels, a wind turbine, a fuel efficent car…if you do these things and are enthusiastic about how good they are then people may well emulate that. If you can throw in stories of how successfully others have done the same then so much the better. Another approach might be to find a cause that somone feels passionately about for example debt relief and then allude to the connections between crop failures and climate change…probably as much as you can get away with without being preachy, really well targeted hints may make some impact…or an amaxing speach…how about watching an inconvenient truth? Finally, more on marketing and climate change here…http://climatechangeaction.blogspot.com/search/label/marketing%20and%20strategy

Check out this great articles from Mother Jones called The Thirteenth Tipping Point which looks at our responses to climate change using hilarious terms like climate cliques and naysayers or alarmists and acrobats.

Oh and there is a blog dedicated to looking at the efforts of climate change activists: Climate Change Action.
I like the idea of finding a better word for what people who work to reframe ideologies and practices that further endanger our environment.

I could have done this in one comment I know–but I kept thinking of things to add:

The 12 tipping points are:

1. Amazon Rainforest
2. North Atlantic Current
3. Greenland ice Sheet
4. Ozone hole
5. Antarctic circumpolar Current
6. Sahara Desert
7. Tibetan Plateau
8. Asian Monsoon
9. Methane Clathrates
10. Salinity Valves
11. El Nino
12. West Antarctic ice Sheet

i have faced the same situation many times. some board members of large environmental organizations call themselves green, but make no conscious effort to actually behave in a “green” mannor. I think we need to shift the message for change to include personal responsibility as well as corporate. that is where religion plays an important role. love your neighbor as yourself. Practice love and kindness and make it inclusive of all behaviors. The car one drives, the coffee one drinks, the clothes one wears. all these behaviors affect another person; a neighbor.

Early in the process of starting a new biofuels company in Vermont, I went to see my friend Linda Kelliher to talk about marketing and branding.

Linda asked a very perceptive question: How did the word “recycle” get to be so important and ubiquitous? Such a force for change?

This is what we have to do for the word Green… As in “That is really Green.” Or “Dad, that is not Green!”

Here is a clue: Our children can make this happen, if we let them.

With that hint, you can figure out the answer to Linda’s question. Once you have this, you will understand why we call everyone of our biofuel space conditioning installations “learning labs” — especially if they are in schools or churches. In fact, our very first installation will be at a religious organization in Shelburne, VT. Our second will be in a school.

Game theory says that it’s advantageous not to take action at all, to reap the rewards of others’ actions (e.g. on a political level, rejecting Kyoto), hence the necessity for personal initiative, for longterm and global investment. It’s hard to expect much change from big businesses, when their stock-holders are expecting them to post big earnings. BP has shown that companies can go above & beyond, setting their own sustainability standards. But I think we could do more - as a country, as consumers, as neighbors - to promote economic and political incentives, energy standards and accountability.