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The Climate Pool: The Yes Men pull a fast one on Canada
The Yes Men pull a fast one on Canada
The
e-mail read too good to be true. Canada, a laggard at these climate
talks, was announcing a radical shift, ready to embrace a 40 percent
cut in its emissions below 1990 levels and 80 percent by 2050 _ the
toughest of any country.
The release looked official -- it had the logo for Environment Canada. It included a link to a story that supposedly appeared in The Wall Street Journal suggesting a walkout by developing nations at the U.N. climate talks led to their more ambitious targets.
Until now, Canada has only said it would reduce its emissions 20 percent from 2006 levels _ one of the lowest targets offered by rich countries.
These new targets? A mirage. A hoax perpetrated by pranksters The Yes Men. They told The Associated Press that it was done to expose what they said was Canada's failure to take tough action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The release looked official -- it had the logo for Environment Canada. It included a link to a story that supposedly appeared in The Wall Street Journal suggesting a walkout by developing nations at the U.N. climate talks led to their more ambitious targets.
Until now, Canada has only said it would reduce its emissions 20 percent from 2006 levels _ one of the lowest targets offered by rich countries.
These new targets? A mirage. A hoax perpetrated by pranksters The Yes Men. They told The Associated Press that it was done to expose what they said was Canada's failure to take tough action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"The idea was the confuse the Canadian government which set up a war room to positively spin their position in the debate even though everyone here knows that their position is a cruel joke," said Yes Men member Mike Bonanno, who also put out a mock release purportedly from Canada decrying the original and quite fake release.
Sensing something was amiss, I raced down to the Canadian delegation to seek comment. Reporters stood outside buzzing about the hoax. Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice found himself wasting time explaining the whole episode, and tried, in vain, to redirect the conversation back to all the great things the country was doing to fight global warming.
"I'm aware that there was a press release that was a hoax that was sent out in the name of Canada that the government of Canada had nothing to do with," the stern-faced Prentice told reporters "Certainly there are many things going on the periphery of the negotiations and some of them are undesirable and other things that will continue to happen that are undesirable including press releases that are a hoax."
Send us questions now for a Q&A with The Yes Men on Tuesday at 0830GMT (0330EST).
They'll answer your questions on climate change, world leadership and what should really be done in Copenhagen.
Post your questions in the comments section below, or tweet them to @AP_ClimatePool
Michael Casey has covered environmental issues for The AP in Bangkok for four years.
Follow AP's climate coverage and conversation on Twitter by going to @AP_ClimatePool
