Enviro Groups Retreat From Violent Advocacy Video

New York Times ^ | Andrew C. Revkin

[lbryce]

Green groups are running from a new British advocacy video in which environmentalists deal death to those who refuse to cut their carbon footprints.

The four-minute video -- produced by the London-based group 10:10 -- features a host of celebrities encouraging the public to work to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent.

It also features a scene in which a schoolteacher explodes two students who refuse to take part in the campaign, turning the children into a red soup and covering their classmates with gore. In subsequent vignettes, office workers, a former soccer great and "X-Files" star Gillian Anderson all become wall decorations after refusing to join in.

The film was intended to be comedic, the group says, but it sparked a critical backlash and was pulled from the 10:10 website Friday only hours after its release.

"With climate change becoming increasingly threatening, and decreasingly talked about in the media, we wanted to find a way to bring this critical issue back into the headlines whilst making people laugh," the group wrote in a post on its website.

"Many found the resulting film extremely funny, but unfortunately some didn't, and we sincerely apologise to anybody we have offended," the group said. "Oh well, we live and learn."

The group has scratched plans to distribute the video to theaters but said it will not attempt to censor other versions of the video available online.

U.S. environmental groups -- including those that had counted 10:10 among their partners -- are recoiling.

Among them is 350.org, the group founded by environmentalist Bill McKibben, which released a statement saying it had nothing to do with the video and denouncing it as "the complete opposite of everything we and this movement stand for." See The rest of the article in comments.

[lbryce]

350.org was working with 10:10 and other groups for an Oct. 10 "Global Work Party" on cutting carbon emissions but now will sever all ties with the British group. The global event will proceed as planned, a 350 spokesman said.

"Climate skeptics are going to make a big deal of this," McKibben wrote on the 350.org website in a post titled "Days that Suck."

"The video represents the kind of stupidity that really hurts our side, reinforcing in people's minds a series of preconceived notions, not the least of which is that we're out-of-control elitists," he said.

Related New York Times articles:
Note:By the time you get to see this post the url as provided by the New York Times might very have been changed. Please scroll down the NYT's page to read the article.

There are much more important things to focus on than an utterly misconceived mini movie utterly misconceived mini movie blowing up kids to recruit carbon cutters, so it’s welcome that Eugenie Harvey, the director of the 10:10 UK group that commissioned the film, has moved toward closure by issuing a real apology (text below). The rather reluctant regrets note posted on Friday essentially encouraged YouTube visitors to copy and disseminate it by saying, “We won’t be making any attempt to censor or remove other versions currently in circulation on the internet.”

Of course the 10:10 folks can’t do anything about the even more horrific “remixes” of the video that are now being propagated by foes of climate action. (Sorry, you’ll have to Google for them yourself.)

If you’d like to see what funny gory humor looks like, I encourage you to check out climate blogtoonist Marc Roberts’ take on the “No Pressure” video

=========================================
What upsets me is that this story is not going to get anywhere near the publicity it deserves.

[TigersEye]

They should stick to spiking trees and burning new homes and car dealerships.
All the stuff that makes them so popular and mainstream.

[230FMJ]

“It was just hyperbolic humor”. Right.....

So was Mein Kampf.

[rawcatslyentist]

Green groups are running from a new British advocacy video in which environmentalists deal death to those who refuse to cut their carbon footprints.

Their Kaczynskis are coming home to roost!

[lbryce]

It also features a scene in which a schoolteacher explodes two students who refuse to take part in the campaign, turning the children into a red soup and covering their classmates with gore.

"With gore?" Isn't GORE how the whole damn thing started in the first place?

[chilltherats]

I think this ad was a major Freudian slip made by enviro-anarchists who really do want to kill anybody who doesn’t believe what they do.

Exploding the heads of classroom children locked in public-run indoctrination camps is not humor. It’s a revelation. They are emboldened by the weakness of the resistance to their agenda.

[who knows what evil?]

The mask slips yet again...

[lbryce]

You Tube 10:10 Enviro Group Violent Advocacy Video

NYT Video Review: ‘Pretty Edgy’ Climate Campaign

A ‘Pretty Edgy’ Climate Campaign By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Hey, in an entertainment universe where a blood-soaked psychopath can be a hero and flesh-munching zombies can be hilarious (to me, too), what’s a few exploding schoolchildren?

Late last week, a British climate group released “ No Pressure,” a mini-film aimed at rounding up new recruits to its “10:10″ movement, in which people, schools, companies and other participants pledge to cut their greenhouse gas emissions 10 percent in a year.

On paper, the project had everything going for it — the screenwriter of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” music by Radiohead, on-screen talent including Gillian Anderson, a partnership with The Guardian newspaper, which got the exclusive, unveiling the video with a gushy blog post that called it “attention grabbing” and “pretty edgy.”

[chilltherats]

Yes, and more frequently these days, which is easy to understand considering who is running the country.

[SkyPilot]

You can't even find evidence of it on YouTube either.

The movie has become an "unperson."

[lbryce]

I’ve got a link to the ‘You Tube’ video in comment #8 that I just checked and is working just fine.

[SkyPilot]

"Many found the resulting film extremely funny, but unfortunately some didn't, and we sincerely apologise to anybody we have offended," the group said. "Oh well, we live and learn."

Have you ever been around a person who was most cruel, vile, and gross - and when confronted with their evil behavior, they claim they were only joking?

It is the character of the wicked to behave this way.

God pointed this out thousands of years ago.

"Like a madman shooting firebrands or deadly arrows is a man who deceives his neighbor and says, "I was only joking!"

Proverbs 26: 18-19

[SkyPilot]

Thanks.

Do me a favor. Go on YouTube and search for "10:10" or "10:10 movie" and tell me what links (if any) come up for you?

Appreciate it.

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[Alas Babylon!]

Very good point. That Proverb fits them to an exact T.

Also, I've downloaded the 10:10 vid so it can't be entirely disappeared.

[Dixie Yooper]

Google - Video - No Pressure = http://sohalt.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/1010-no-pressure/

[WilliamofCarmichael]

It reminded me of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

While Monty Python is absolute (great!) nutty comedy this, it seemed to me, attempted to convey a kind of warning using outrageous shtick.

A kind of warning? Yes. I've seen reports that global-warming nut cases call opponents "deniers" (as in Holocaust deniers) and an existential threat to the Earth itself. Nothing will be ruled too drastic to stop "deniers" is the message.

[lbryce]

Even if that is the case, and I don't doubt that it is, that's not how I came to uncover the video. Your cast too wide a berth with search terms that were not very specific. I tested out the search term "10:10" and found the link listed in Google Real Time Search results, a new Google search tool that provides up to the minute search results via Twitter et al
Google Real Time Search
I uncovered the video link in the NYT Video Review also posted in comment #8 (in blue.)

[rickb308]

“not the least of which is that we’re out-of-control idiots,” he said.”

I’ve got a sure fire plan to reduce carbon footprints. But then I’d be likened to Pol Pot. Those who believe the strongest, should lead by example. Off yourselves first, & we’ll re-evaluate.

[muir_redwoods]

How funny would it be to make a film of a rancher shooting two ALF or ELF members who were caught trying to "liberate" his cattle or some such dumb stunt.

To make it really funny he can hang their bodies by the heels and gut them like a deer.

Funny huh?