We all love feeling good about ourselves. Especially when we feel we are “right-ing” a wrong we made. … And what better way can we do this than spending billions of dollars to correct this wrong we created.
Especially after when we realize that wrong can and will:
- Destroy our lives and seriously hamper our happiness
- Render life difficult for our family and unborn offspring.
Marketers know this and harp on this “weakness” smartly in such a way that would create multimillion dollar industries literally out of nothing.
Here’s a reminder of how enormous this wrong is to understand why we’re so “gullible” in falling for any marketing gimmick.
Perhaps you can guess what 'this wrong' is all about even before I state it.
According to a cheat sheet by Wired, here are the most terrifying facts…
- Temperatures are breaking records around the world
- Arctic sea ice and glaciers are melting, fast
- Sea levels rose 19cm between 1900 and 2000.. Scary, uhn?
- Climate change will displace 250 million people by 2050
- Global flooding could triple by 2030
- More greenhouse gases are in our atmosphere than any time in human history
All this facts are caused mainly by a disturbing human “wrong”: Pollution
The Birth Of This Article AND My Increasing Distrust Of The Media
Several weeks ago, I was scouring the web as usual when I stumbled on an article by NYTimes talking about some recently discovered internal sugar industry documents that revealed that the industry paid scientists in the 1960s to downplay the link between sugar and heart diseases and instead put the blame on FAT.
Why is this important?
Researchers suggest that five decades of research into the role of nutrition and heart disease, including many of today’s dietary recommendations, may have been largely shaped by the sugar industry.
Including the very popular, HIGHLY HYPED LOW FAT DIET.
Interestingly, a few days later I saw another article that claimed a popular hype might not be that true…
Of Tesla and The Green Energy Hype – How Green are Battery Powered Auto-cars compared to their fossil fuels counterparts?
With the attendant need to control climate change, researchers over the years have posited several ways of reducing the effects of climate change. Sectors like transportation, power generation and industrial production have been examined and a commonly recommended solution has been energy efficiency.
This has led to near-crazy scramble in financing the development of renewable fuels… Despite the fact this has been justified by World Leaders as the silver bullet solution, recent stats show that not only is renewable energy lagging behind fossil fuel in term of cost efficiency, it has little or no advantage over non-renewable fuels in terms of energy efficiency.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, the efficiency of solar (12 per cent) and wind (26 per cent) remains way below the efficiency notched up by conventional power plants, such as gas (42.9 per cent).
So rather than making us believe that fossil fuels are evil and renewable energy sources are the real deal, more funds should be pumped into research and development to ensure a better utilization of both resources – renewable and non-renewable..
The King Of Hype
While hype is generally seen as a negative term, iconic entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs have used to nicely it to their advantage. Of them, is Elon Musk. With his lofty, crazy ideas and vigorous defense of them, Musk has perfected the art of hype. While he has generally lived up to expectations, his aggressive marketing has led to a not so nice effect- Encouraging unrealistic expectations
Tesla Cars Are Not As Green As The Hype Portray
Apart from fears that the batteries used to power these cars aint as truly innovative as they would have us believe..
"There's been a lot of hype surrounding it, but all it is just a battery," says David Kelly, chief executive of Alberta-based solar energy firm SkyFire Energy.
"They've basically packaged up a bunch of lithium ion batteries with their battery management system and hung it on the wall."
There are also reports that Tesla Electric Cars ain’t as green as the marketing stories want to make us believe…. The feeling we have that we’re finally doing something good for the environment.
Tackling this belief is a press release by Devonshire Research Group… They argue that not only do Tesla cars produce as much emissions as traditional cars, but the price of the company’s shares is overvalued…..
Not only is “Tesla Motors” intellectual property not as unique as everyone is made to believe, Devonshire according to its research believes that:
Tesla's electric vehicle production has a heavier carbon footprint than traditional vehicles .....
This research aint downplaying the enormous contributions of Musk and Tesla in powering the alternative fuel industry, instead it’s trying to make the public better informed about the choices they are “forced” to make from the hype.
Yes! It’s agreed that electric cars release fewer emissions… With the Model S producing 4x less CO2 than gas-powered cars as reported by a Tesla spokesman..
However, other environmental damage done during the production process makes electric cars even more harmful than their traditional counterparts….
From Lithium and other rare metals that are used to ensure a light car…to….. Potential environmental damages that might arise from used batteries dump, Electric cars are certainly not livening up to the hype..
While the mass production of Electric cars are a great step in the right direction… One that’s has to be greatly encouraged… Why? Because further research by USC believe that EVs have the potential of having less overall environmental impact than fossil fuels powered cars…
However, we all need to understand that what you’re dreaming of is not perfect… And all products aint currently leaving up to the hype ….. They are not as green as you’re influenced to believe… and they certainly contribute their own fair share of emissions…..
Should We Really Aspire to Live Outside the Earth - In Space
“I can’t stand that people think we’re all going to live on Mars after we destroy our own planet. Even after we’ve made the Earth too hot and polluted for humans, it still won’t be as bad as Mars. At least there’s plenty of water here, and the atmosphere won’t make your head explode.” - a 12 year old.
Creating Hype with Lofty Ideas
Just like our natural guilt of degrading our planet is being used to fuel the eco-green hype ..pushing us to spend billions of dollars on products that can help get rid of that guilt…
The “whole Mars Trip” is fast becoming one too..
I strongly believe that the reason why the idea of living on Mars looks so cool to us is the fear/guilt we feel that we’ve ruined the planet and rendered earth unlivable for our generations yet unborn…
However, when we take a look at the reality, the hype fizzles away…
- Mars has almost no surface water;
- A toxic atmosphere that is too thin for humans to survive without pressure suits; at 95% carbon dioxide, our present earthly carbon dioxide rate of 0.01% is child’s play.
- Deadly solar radiation;
- Temperatures lower than Antarctica( average -56°F (-49°C)) compared to an average of -67°F (-55°C) on Mars
- Few to none of the natural resources that have been critical to human success on Earth.
The Hype Master Does It Again
Yesterday, at the 67th annual International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, Elon Musk in his true fashion relays a doomsday event backing up his ambition to create a colonized Martian city.
Currently, getting involved in this fantasy according to Musk’s admittedly loose estimates, (using non-existent tech) would probably cost around $10 billion. But he believes we can get the cost down to say $200,000 if we inject proper funding (light bulb?) to this lofty idea.
Interestingly, someone also noticed this…
Elizabeth Lopatto from The Verge brilliantly pointed out this morning, the whole point of this today’s speech is to pique the interest of other monied space fanatics.
Earth has existed for millions of years before we exist and will exist far beyond our lives.
However, it’s awesome daydreaming of this near utopia….it’s what bestselling sci-fi novels and movies are made of….
(Thanks 
P. S
I love this guy – Elon Musk and I’ve read tons of information about him.. This Hype Strategy has helped him really create awesome stuff for humanity.... I just feel we need to question hypes when we see them.
It’s been quite a while I wrote a post save for SteemMag. I write every now and then on topics – (AI, Economics, Psychology and all things tech) - that pique my curiosity. And I'm glad to be back.
This article (oops.. after over 3 weeks of sitting on the original draft) is a collaboration with
So what do you think?
Can we make a 100% green product? Stop Falling for the Marketer’s Hype? Will you like to live on Mars?
Would love to hear from you…
Sources
http://planetsave.com/2010/08/18/humans-cause-global-warming-10-indicators/
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obama-links-climate-change-public-health-risks
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/climate-change-cheat-sheet
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-industry-shifted-blame-to-fat.html
https://www.fortnightly.com/fortnightly/2010/04/beyond-green-hype?page=0%2C4
https://www.altushost.com/the-art-of-the-hype-6-lessons-learned-from-elon-musk/
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/dont-believe-the-eco-hype/17728#.V-EgAG-EDIU
http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5609812-beyond-the-hype-is-the-tesla-home-powered-battery-worth-the-money-/
http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/-2108010.htm
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/electric-vehicles/life-cycle-ev-emissions#.Vv0_OhIrKRt
https://www.wired.com/2016/03/teslas-electric-cars-might-not-green-think/
http://qz.com/536483/why-its-compeltely-ridiculous-to-think-that-humans-could-live-on-mars/
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/10199/20141111/life-beyond-earth-what-happens-once-we-find-it.htm
https://www.wired.com/2016/09/elon-musk-colonize-mars/