Pro Tip: Dos and Don’ts of Climate Comms

October 14, 2022

This one: https://t.co/FLZC3Vr7C3
— GenevieveZzyzyx (@GZzyzyx) October 14, 2022

Which side indeed.

It’s oil DRILLING we need to stop, not oil PAINTINGS. Just sayin.
So many other ways to do this.

Not good climate comms.

Posted by greenman3610
Filed in Crock of the Week

11 Comments »

11 Responses to “Pro Tip: Dos and Don’ts of Climate Comms”

Rob Kerr Says:

October 14, 2022 at 5:04 pm
And yet here we are, talking about what they did, getting their message out there.

For the first time in possibly forever, humans are responsible for leaving the next generation worse off than the last. Fix it, old people, fix the world we have broken for our convenience.

Reply
- rhymeswithgoalie Says:
  
  October 14, 2022 at 10:13 pm
  They could have gotten better coverage wearing waterfowl and turtle costumes and writhing around in a baby pool full of crude oil in front of the museum (or some other major tourist attraction). It would be more on point, for one thing.
  
  Reply
- Jon in Austin Says:
  
  October 15, 2022 at 2:26 pm
  I am generally supportive of symbolic acts of protest to heighten awareness. But this is stunningly inappropriate and misguided. What everyone is talking about is the pointless vandalism of a celebrated work of art. Nobody is talking about their message or their cause except for the discredit they have brought to both.
  
  Reply
  - Jon in Austin Says:
    
    October 15, 2022 at 2:39 pm
    Fortunately, a protective shield averted damage to the painting, but that is not helping the discourse much.
    
    Reply
  - jimbills Says:
    
    October 15, 2022 at 3:52 pm
    A few people are talking about the message:
    View at Medium.com
    
    But, you’re right, most people aren’t, but then, most people are more concerned with ridiculous BS du jour than the destruction of a stable climate and the biosphere.
    
    BTW, Just Stop Oil has been protesting widely for a while, and in ways directly connected to the oil industry. This is the first time they got national attention, though:
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/01/down-to-earth-just-stop-oil-protest
    
    “The key shift in Just Stop Oil is what its supporters say is a move from civil disobedience and into civil resistance.”
    
    The older generations have tried the ‘nice’ way of protesting for decades. The younger generation is getting more desperate. Can we as the older generation really blame them?
    
    Reply
- Gingerbaker Says:
  
  October 15, 2022 at 10:38 pm
  “Fix it, old people, fix the world…”
  
  Hey!
  
  At least half of we “old people” have been fighting the good fight most of our lives. And we have accomplished a few good things. Like it or not, young person, the ball is in YOUR hands now. Let’s see if you can do any better. I sure hope that you do.
  
  Reply
jimbills Says:

October 14, 2022 at 11:10 pm
They’re PO’d kids with no respect for what old people have done! Dern kids!

Reply
- jimbills Says:
  
  October 14, 2022 at 11:32 pm
  And four more things:
  
  1) Van Gogh’s Sunflowers is protected by glass and was back on display within hours:
  https://news.artnet.com/art-world/van-gogh-sunflowers-attacked-2192303
  
  2) Animal populations experience average decline of almost 70% since 1970, report reveals
  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/13/almost-70-of-animal-populations-wiped-out-since-1970-report-reveals-aoe
  
  3) Actually read the comments to Damien Gayle’s post:
  
  “For God sake forget prison for these wannabe activists – just open some asylums!”
  
  “Send these terrorists to Gitmo”
  
  “Oh they are girls!!! Are you sure?”
  
  “Shoot on site”
  
  4) What Rob Kerr said. Extinction Rebellion is just a decade or two ahead of its time. They seem wild, foolish, radical to us now, but wait until the real climate effects come down the pike – this will be literal child’s play compared to what we should have done to get everyone’s attention when we actually had a chance at mitigation. Yes, their actions are bad PR when seen by the dunderhead (and increasingly fascistic) public. But has ‘good PR’ worked?
  
  Reply
- redskylite Says:
  
  October 15, 2022 at 3:28 am
  When I think about some of the heavy protests of yesteryear – such as suffragettes, CND marches and sit downs, Vietnam protests, U.K miners strike, apartheid, U.S segregation this one seems petty tame and to draw such ire over an action that Vincent van Gogh himself would have probably approved of (as a nature lover), have we become numb and indifferent to the world’s problems. Most people I know seem to be totally indifferent to the latest report from the WWF on the observed dramatic reduction of animal species, yet get outraged by trivia such as Prince Harry and his black U.S.wife. Is it me ? whats up with mankind. ? Has an overdose of CO2 and methane dumb ed our minds ?
  
  Reply
  - jimbills Says:
    
    October 15, 2022 at 12:05 pm
    In the coming decades, the main environmental question people will be asking about this time period will be why didn’t we do more to stop it. In this time period, though, we mock the wild radicals for throwing soup on artwork that they know full well is protected by glass and won’t be harmed and say things like they should be shot on ‘site’.
    
    Our perspective is all screwed up as a society, and we don’t even realize it.
    
    As for tactics, there are hundreds to thousands of climate protests each year that get little to no press. Newer climate groups are staging more and more elaborate (and perhaps desperate) protests in a bid to get at least 24 hours worth of attention – because the world ain’t a listenin’ othwerwise, and cares more for cultural symbols than future environmental catastrophes.
    
    Reply
Brent Jensen-Schmidt Says:

October 15, 2022 at 8:10 pm
Gets noticed. So go girls!

Reply