Remember how I read that book, Merchants of Doubt, a couple months ago? It was about the oil company propaganda going back to even back in 1950, and how it's shaped the whole climate conversation we're having now, today. (video of this message on LinkedIn and YouTube)

This Guardian article that outlines ads used by fossil oil companies to drive the conversation. From the year 1984: "Lies they tell our children" about climate change being a lie (I haven't seen that yet as a 2026 marketing campaign, but I sure could). "Carbon footprints," invented in 2003, used as a term by the oil industry to put the blame on us as individuals and not on them.

I found this Guardian article and Merchants of Doubt eye-opening in the sense that society has really been programmed by these memes, ads, and climate denial propaganda.

These ads and memes are used at the highest levels of the United States government. They've connected this story that climate change is fake to policy, and now that's going into change policy.

Two weeks ago, the Trump administration gutted the EPA, removing the Endangerment Finding, which said that greenhouse gases threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.

We also saw this a couple months ago in the report from the DOE, this "Critical Review of the Impacts of Greenhouse Gas," that talked about maybe more carbon dioxide would just be better since it might be better for plants.

The story that climate change is a lie began in 1950 and now it's going back into force in policy.

This is more than stories, advertising, and reports. These serve as the foundation for real change in policy and beyond.

Let's put the power of memes to good use!

Memes and stories are what grab attention. They get talked about. And this is a tool to reshape how we pursue a stable climate for everybody.

How do we create our own stories, our own memes, to have people take action on reversing climate change?

Maybe this is like the Jedi Strikes Back. Imagine we come up with memes to have people appreciate clean air and clean water, appreciate a stable climate at such a level that those stories translate back into policy and back into innovation and back into science.

Now, you might say, "Oh, but we already do have memes. We have books and documentaries and Greta Thunberg." No, those aren't it. My evidence? Look outside at carbon dioxide levels. They're higher than ever in human history, and on the rise. That is evidence that we don't yet have memes that work for billions of people.

We have tons of scientific reports. We have graphs. We have charts. They're very accurate. They're very peer-reviewed. And yet carbon dioxide continues to rise.

I think generally a lot of people do care about a stable climate - what's missing is belief, goals, and action. If people believed that it was possible and they believed that it was something they wanted, then there would be funding, there would be debates, there would be projects, there'd be growth, there'd be all of those things happening towards making that story, that belief, a reality.

Now, to win at the meme game, there's many people needed. We have a lot of scientists and innovators in the AirMiners community, in the reversing climate change community. And some of those people are good at making memes and making stories. I don't know how many communicators, artists, and designers we have, but this might be more strongly a calling for you than turning a wrench or opening a CAD program or something like that.

Human society has incredible storytellers, but they're working on the wrong side. Getting all of us on the same page towards this goal that we're working towards of a stable climate is mission critical.

I've made a first step of this. I just published my Gas Wars meme. I worked on it with my friend Purin Phanichphant, who makes incredible art and designs. We've worked together, even going back to the original branding and colors and design for AirMiners and the Carbon Doomsday project.

It's available today on the 6529 network. You can buy a copy of this meme if you want.

I want to see more things like this. Make memes about how we get to a stable climate, what life is like when we do get there.

I encourage you to think of this as a first step towards how do we discover memes that work for billions of people that have us reverse climate change. Is this it? Maybe. I kind of think it's probably not, but this is a first step towards that.

Here's what's next for you to stay informed and get involved:

• Join the AirMiners Slack channel. Join the #memes channel for memes and people creating memes.

• Follow the Carbon Removal Memes Lab on LinkedIn (the working group for the Meme Lab is also hosted on AirMiners Slack, join #memes and ask about getting added)

Here's one of my favorite memes from the Carbon Removal Memes Lab:

• It's a crab with laser eyes blasting another crab, backed up by direct air capture machines, sentient trees, and piles of biochar. And the laser-eye crab says: "Silence, Doomer. Your cynicism and hopelessness only serves to protect the status quo of fossil fuel extraction. It's never too late to fight for our planet."

I want to see someday soon a Guardian article that's kind of the reverse of this "Forgotten Oil Advertisements" article. It features Gas Wars, the crab, and other memes, "Here's the memes we discovered that finally had billions of people take action on reversing climate change."

Hit reply, join these channels, and let's seize the memes of reversing climate change!

Tito

P.S. I'm continuing our conversation on goals later today, so look out for an email on that