Stupid Shenanigans from clever crew on Vimeo
Spurred on by the excellent film the Age of Stupid, some enterprising types went about town last week naming and shaming climate culprits and heaping praises on one of Ecotricity's wind turbines. I think the likes of BP, Esso and Shell deserve much more derogatory labels than 'stupid' but in line with the film's theme it sounded right.
Now putting 'Stupid' signs up at three garages, the RBS headquarters and Kingsnorth power station may sound like a lot of direct action for one week but they also scaled a wind turbine and unfurled a ‘Not Stupid' banner to show appreciation for green energy. The Not Stupid gang also gave the thumbs up to Eurostar train service in London and Paris and flashmobbed Manchester rail station.
Just days ago Shell scrapped its own greenwashing efforts showing that the recession has allowed polluters to shamelessly ditch whatever lip service they were paying to environmental concerns. I guess the economic downturn is finally exposing oil companies and their financiers who are in it simply for the money with utter disregard for our planet and for people suffering directly as a consequence of climate change.
The proposed coal plant at Kingsnorth for instance would emit more CO2 than the whole of Ghana when it would be the poorest nations on the planet that would be first and worst affected by climate change. The decision makers on our environmental policy should be forced to live in areas where climate change is already devastating lives to show them where they are leading us all to. The public is definitely not stupid and we need action from the government and soon, as we don't have the luxury of time.
