Spoofs, hoaxes, Insurgent clown armies, impersonations, media hijacking, theatrics, and even Bigfoot formed just part of the arsenal that climate activists used in calling out the worst climate criminals commenced worldwide on Fossil Fools Day yesterday.
Yesterday, here in North America alone, more than 30 cities organized demonstrations against the fossil fuel industry, corporate banks and big environmental organizations for the festivities. Demonstrations were coordinated in part by Rising Tide North America.
Here’s a just a few highlights from actions today but be sure to check out www.fossilfoolsday.org for a full review!
Cascadia region – Oregon, U.S.
Late last night volunteers with Portland Rising Tide blasted the city with over 3,000 fake newspaper covers wrapping the Willamette Weekly.
With content including an interview with Bigfoot about pipeline plans through Mt. Hood and a chart explaining the Columbia River Crossing project as understood by Glen Beck. The action was part of Fossil Fools Day, a national day-of-action with the tag-line, “Pull a prank that packs a punch” meant to inspire playful actions targeting the fossil fuel industry. (read more…)
Carbon Traders pranked in Auckland, NZ
Camp for Climate Action Auckland has visited the offices of OMFinancial to present them with this year’s Fossil Fools day award for helping New Zealand’s biggest polluters cheat their way out of dealing with climate change.
“Last December in Copenhagen, the politicians sold us out to the fossil fools and corporate lobbyists like the International Emissions Trading Association. Instead of 350 parts per million (ppm) of carbon in the atmosphere as ‘required by science’, the Copenhagen Accord signatories’ promised 15% emissions cuts from 1990 levels to 2020 could in reality translate into a 10% increase once carbon trading and offset loopholes are factored in. We’ve been left with nothing but carbon market shenanigans designed to distract us from the truth. Stopping runaway climate change means leaving fossil fuels in the ground.” (more…)
Green Energy Gift in UK as Eon halts expansion
German energy giant EON have announced that they are shelving controversial plans for a massive expansion of coal and gas electricity generation in the Medway region. The surprising news emerged today as Eon contractors broke ground at the offices of Medway Council on Dock Road, Chatham, and started installing wind turbines and solar panels.
Eon media relations officer, Joe King announced, “We realise that continued investment in fossil fuels is a dangerous distraction from the urgent need to develop truly sustainable technologies so we’ve abandoned our dated plans to continue burning gas and coal. This wind farm for Medway council is just the beginning, we’re also offering all our customers heavily discounted shares in future community wind farm schemes, so they’ll actually co-own the systems that provide their power”. (more…)
Pepco pranked in DC, announces green shift
Pepco announces plan to shift all power facilities to wind and solar energy, may cancel planned rate hikes Pepco notifies its customers that it wishes “to serve the energy needs of our customers for generations to come.”
Washington DC – In an unprecedented move this morning, Pepco Holdings Inc. executives announced plans to shift all of their energy facilities to wind and solar energy by the year 2020. The DC-area power giant has already delivered the news of its green energy transition to thousands of its customers in the DC area through door-to-door flyers distributed this morning. Pepco is an innovative power company serving 1.9 million customers in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, and New Jersey.
Website prank spoofs Xcel in Denver, CO
Denver, CO – On April Fools’ Day – as part of the international ‘Fossil Fools Day’ – Colorado activists pulled an elaborate prank on Xcel Energy, the largest utility company in the state. With a farce website(www.xcelresponsiblebynature.com), a satirical press release, and a letter to Colorado ratepayers, activists helped Xcel Energy become a renewable energy leader. The announcement said that Xcel Energy would switch to 100% renewable electricity in Colorado by phasing out all coal plants and abandoning plans to convert existing coal plants to natural gas.
Again, that was just a sampling!
Visit www.fossilfoolsday.org for a full review, more photos, more information, and to join in on the fun, because Fossil Fools don’t stop being Climate Criminals when the sun sets…