Let's Hear it for "The Bad Guys" Saving Planet Earth

I find it deeply ironic that the professions most intimately linked to the use of language are consistently seen as villains. Journalists, PR people, lawyers and politicians: we all craft and deploy words to enlighten people and persuade them to do things.

This should be a noble endeavour, and there's plenty of historic evidence that all of these groups have made the world a better place. Yet each profession consistently ranks at the bottom of surveys about trust and esteem. In fact, if Dante were writing today I'm sure he'd create a special ring of hell just for this fearsome four, where our bodies and souls were buffeted in circles by hot airstreams of words we'd used to manipulate the innocent. (As a special tormet, the words beating me would all contain inappropriately used apostrophes, just to exacerbate my intellectual pain.)

What's the problem with saving the planet while making some money, too?

Our most recent actions may, however, buy us some penance for all those imagined sins. That quartet tends to set the world's agenda, and the agenda has turned decidedly green.

We all know people who've been banging on about global warming for years. Face it, it was a side issue. Suddenly, it's everywhere. I defy you to sort through a stack of old magazines in your house (the task that brought on these thoughts) and make it to the bottom without encountering someone's "Green Issue". The journalists have engaged, with enthusiasm. There's no escape: It is the topic of the year.


The politicians are following where the media leads. The G8 did green deals, the press covered them doing green deals, the lawyers and PRs start planning to work with the green deals, and a virtuous circle spirals upwards. Every PR person I know is looking for a way to link to the green agenda. I'm up to my ears in planning for a sustainability campaign in the Autumn. And every lawyer I know is shifting towards looking at green legislation, making it or taking advantage of it.

Are all these people embracing sustainability issues for pure and noble reasons? Of course not. We're following a popular agenda, recently made overwhelming by our journalistic colleagues. Who need to sell papers, and know this is the ultimate fear, uncertainty and doubt story ... made more bankable with illustrations of cute polar animals. In the corporate sphere, helping the planet will not only enhance reputations; it will, inevitably, make a lot of people a lot of money. And why not? What's wrong with keeping the polar ice caps in place AND bolstering the economy? I refuse to feel guilty for jumping on this bandwagon. The quartet of wordspinners is joining together to influence the corporate world, and the big corporates can make inroads that individuals can't.

I'm feeling a rising tide of optimism about the planet. No matter how gloomy the picture, I can't believe that the combined money, good will and brains of the entire human race can't crack this. And thanks to journalists, PRs, politicians and lawyers, everyone is starting to work in the same direction.

That, perhaps, will earn me and my colleagues a few less days in our own special circle of hell.