Yes, we’re screwed

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, September 23rd, 2009 - 10 comments
Categories: activism, climate change - Tags:

On Monday, New Yorkers discovered their free rightwing rag, the New York Post, had suddenly come over all green. The front-page was typical NYP: a headline screaming “we’re screwed”.

The difference was that, in a reversal of the norm, the paper was fake but the facts were real. The Yes-Men had produced a 32-page newspaper on climate change news and threats, all based on official reports. I haven’t been able to find a copy online but here’s a cool video about it.

Such an awesome piece of activism. On a scale total beyond New Zealand, of course. They produced a million copies, had 2,000 volunteers distribute them in a single morning, and kept it a surprise until it happened. Amazing.

[Turns out the Yes Men and Greenpeace did the same thing with the International Herald Tribune in Brussels back in June]

10 comments on “Yes, we’re screwed ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Brett Dale 1
    23 September 2009 at 1:02 pm

    I have to say HATS off to them, that is very clever indeed.

  2. Pat 2
    23 September 2009 at 1:16 pm

    It’s OK. China’s gonna save the world with their We’ve-got-more-people-so-we-pay-less Plan.

  3. Andrei 3
    23 September 2009 at 1:16 pm

    You have to wonder what the carbon footprint of this particular exercise was?

    Somewhat greater than that of New Zealand’s dairy herd without a doubt – but its all in a good cause I suppose, at least in the tiny minds reef fish climate activists

    • Bright Red 3.1
      23 September 2009 at 2:14 pm

      32 million a4 pages one-off versus 6 million odd cows? You’re dreaming.

      Reducing carbon emissions in the long-term isn’t always a carbon free exercise in the short-term.

      • Maynard J 3.1.1
        23 September 2009 at 2:36 pm

        No no Bright Red, if you want to reduce world-wide use of something, you must never use it yourself.

        You could not possibly expect people like Andrei to do a little sum in their head along the lines of “carbon created by this exercise < reduction in carbon being created as a result of the exercise = net reduction" – that would be much to complex.

  4. StephenR 4
    23 September 2009 at 1:26 pm

    Somewhat greater than that of New Zealand’s dairy herd without a doubt

    Big call.

    • Pascal's bookie 4.1
      23 September 2009 at 1:31 pm

      Oh he’ll just say methane doesn’t count in a carbon footprint, and the herd is just the cows, who don’t use any transport or energy themselves, or some shit like that.

  6. Zepher 6
    23 September 2009 at 2:25 pm

    That news corp businessman’s right! Im so sick of this scientific, academically documented propaganda. Grr

  7. Sonny Blount 7
    23 September 2009 at 6:42 pm

    Everything in it is factual?

    From the headline story:

    “report says extreme storms”

    Chris Landsea may disagreee with this

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.