A recent, high-profile gesture has provoked wide ranging debate and has me plotting another, similar move.

At a recent TED Conference, a self-described conference of the world’s “leading thinkers and doers,” Bill Gates gave a speech on malaria. He described its effects, its history, and its treatments. In this story, two themes were prominent: mosquitoes spread the disease amongst only the world’s poor. More money, he said, is spent on baldness than malaria. And then, in a much-discussed gesture, he released small cloud of mosquitoes on his audience.

There was some nervous laughter and some clapping. He then simply moved on. But to judge from the response on the internet –- here, here, here -– and TED’s response of immediately releasing the video clip, the move had its intended effect: it attracted attention.

Through this simple gesture, it was no longer simply a speech about infectious disease. It provoked debate. It engaged more people than merely his audience. It spread a message of mutual vulnerability, of shared responsibility.

In thinking about this, the similarities between malaria and climate change struck me. Namely, that’s in an issue of great national importance that nevertheless receives paltry investment. That it effects the poor more than the wealthy. That it will require great investment from leading economies. That we currently possess technologies to mitigate some of its effects. And that, despite all of this, speeches on malaria and climate change don’t receive the kind of attention they should, as a measure of pure urgency.

Gates’ gesture, and a recent post by Andy Revkin, has me wondering: What would be the equivalent stunt in a speech about climate change?

Would it be breaking a large fish tank over the front rows?

Would it be slowly heating up the auditorium, a la Jim Hansen’s famous testimony?

Would it be generating crippling snow storms like the one that recently hit England? (God -– help us out here, please?)

Or has Gallagher unknowingly already pulled the stunt, by smashing watermelons with a large sledge hammer?

So let me ask you: what stunt would you pull to provoke discussion on climate change?