2.3
October 4, 2010

Woah! How Far is Too Far to Make A Point About Climate Change?

Thanks to Roger Pielke Jr.’s blog, I watched this public service announcement from the 10:10 people.

The video plays with the following question: What should we do about those people who don’t want to participate in reducing green house gas emissions? Should we play nice–you know, no pressure, I understand it’s difficult to reduce carbon emissions? Or should we be more radical?

The short comes from the folks who made The Age of Stupid documentary. And the 10-10-10 project has been promoted by Bill McKibben and the folks at 350.org.

But this video has raised hackles. Is it savvy, shock and awe marketing in the name of social good? Or is it morally repugnant? And will it backfire as a publicity stunt, confirming beliefs among some that climate change advocates are closet eco-terrorists?

Says filmmaker, Franny Armstrong, “Doing nothing about climate change is still a fairly common affliction, even in this day and age. What to do with those people, who are together threatening everybody’s existence on this planet? Clearly we don’t really think they should be blown up, that’s just a joke for the mini-movie, but maybe a little amputating would be a good place to start?”

Following public outcry, 10:10 has removed the video from their website. Mind you, this is a professionally filmed and edited short, using celebrities and featuring a song from Radiohead. That’s a fair bit of money down the drain. A waste of time? A misfortune of our politically correct times? A massive miscalcuation? What do you think?

**WARNING** Film contains violent and potentially disturbing images

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