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US Youth Crash Climate-Denier Live Webcast in Copenhagen
COPENHAGEN - Fifty young Americans took over a climate denier conference hosted by a prominent conservative organization this evening in Copenhagen, rushing the stage and telling the live TV audience that a clean energy future is the real road to prosperity in America. The young people, merely a fraction of the more than 350 US youth in Denmark for the UN climate negotiations, entered a session of the Americans for Prosperity "Hot Air Tour" speakers series and were able to drop two banners and gain access to the conference's stage. The live event was webcast to over forty climate denier rallies in cities across the United States.
The students entered the event in small groups, joining a paltry audience of five conference attendees, who had come to hear climate denier Lord Christopher Monckton speak about the Copenhagen climate negotiations. After the first five minutes of the event, student representatives from SustainUS, the Sierra Student Coalition, the Cascade Climate Network, and other American youth NGOs displayed banners reading "Climate Disaster Ahead" and "Clean Energy Now." After security agents at the event took the banners, the young attendees began a chant of "Real Americans for Prosperity are Americans for Clean Energy." The chant lasted five minutes, as the youth took the stage and displayed their message for the live video feed being sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, despite evasive action on the camera crew's part. As they left the stage, Lord Monckton repeatedly called the activists "Hitler Youth" and "nazis."
"Clean energy creates jobs," says Rachel Barge, a 24-year-old entrepreneur from San Francisco, CA who was the first young person to raise her voice at the event, "These climate action delayers and science deniers are stealing bold, new economic opportunities from the American public."
Laura Comer, 21, of Strongsville, OH, seconded Barge, saying, "We're representing the majority of Americans on this, particularly young Americans. The real America wants clean energy - not more fossil fuel-funded lies about the science."
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15 Comments so far
Show AllThat was deluxe! And waving flags the whole time.
My hat comes off to these motivated eco-americans.
that wouldn't happen here in the States.
We're too big a bunch a wussies.
Besides, NASCAR's on.
Mo Rage, the blog
"Lord Moncton: International Twit of the Year."
This guy has ZERO science education, and is a known liar and confidence man
http://www.desmogblog.com/pompous-prat-alert-viscount-monckton-tour
During the autumn of 2009, Monckton embarked on a tour of North America to campaign against the December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference. His warning that US President Barack Obama intended to sign a treaty at the conference which would "impose a communist world government on the world" was picked up by numerous commentators on the American right and "rocketed around the fringe" of right-wing websites, prompting Glenn Beck to invite him on his radio show
Views on AIDS
Monckton's views on how the AIDS epidemic should be tackled have been the subject of some controversy. In an article for The American Spectator entitled "AIDS: A British View",[39] written for the January 1987 issue of The American Spectator, he argued that "there is only one way to stop AIDS. That is to screen the entire population regularly and to quarantine all carriers of the disease for life. Every member of the population should be blood-tested every month ... all those found to be infected with the virus, even if only as carriers, should be isolated compulsorily, immediately, and permanently."
He is also Glenn Beck and the psycho right-wingers' favorite "authority" on Copenhagen and climate treaties, he's been on his show a couple times recently.
Yeah!! This is what I'm talking about. That's the way to fight these concrete heads... The more they get their message out the harder it will be to educate those who haven't been paying attention. That's been part of the problem. Some people aren't even aware of the Copenhagen Conference going on right now. But- if I have anything to do with it, they all are getting at least a seed to start them out. I handed out about , say 30 articles so far this week.
A bunch of twits trying to silence another twit. Why couldn't they organize their own event? After polluting the atmosphere by flying to Denmark, they polluted the discourse in Copenhagen by trying to shout someone down. Hardly democracy in action.....
How did this Lord Monkton get his peerage? Is he British? Gee, that sounds bad. I wonder if old Tony Blair had something to do with this jack ass getting a peerage. It does seem like something he would get involved in. After all weirdos who call environmentalists Nazis has to have a few loose screws or not have all his batteries charging. Can we all say aristocratic red neck and brain dead at that? Red neck as in a narrow minded, ignorant person-- classic definition.
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How did this Lord Monkton get his peerage? Is he British? Gee, that sounds bad. I wonder if old Tony Blair had something to do with this jack ass getting a peerage. It does seem like something he would get involved in. After all weirdos who call environmentalists Nazis has to have a few loose screws or not have all his batteries charging. Can we all say aristocratic red neck and brain dead at that? Red neck as in a narrow minded, ignorant person-- classic definition.
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The primary goal of such action is to generate media attention, and yet there is none (google or yahoo it)
All I can see from both groups (AFP, and the coalition of college activists), is the propaganda they create, which includes the bogus news article above, which should be presented as a "press release". IGHIH states clearly it is "the voice" of a growing movement"....
Does this qualify as a failed campaign because, apart from the various groups websites and CD, there is no interest shown anywhere else? We can also go to the youtube broadcast of these videos and see the actual number of views generated (less than the 350 youth in Denmark).
Even more to the point, the youtube video listed on CD is actually the AFP's video on the event, and not IGHIH's video, which would be presumably produced to support like-minded propaganda.
Rehash:
1)Protest is intended to generate media attention
2)When you go to the trouble of creating propaganda, only broadcast your view not your opponents.
btw: Over on sustainUS website, http://sustainus.org/, the same article above is posted as a "press release", minus credit to Juliana Williams.
I have to agree, this should be in the press release section. Describing the event as having "a paltry audience of five conference attendees" is sort of a give away.
Perhaps more importantly, if it was so paltry, then why give these people any publicity at all by crashing their miserable talk?
Unfortunately, activistism continues to rear its ugly head. I know that we're all too young to know what a genuine mass movement looks like (unless some of you date back to the 1930's) but that's what were going to need to make the unprecedented changes necessary to mitigate global warming. How long do we have to go before realizing that mindless chanting and banners and media bombing ain't getting it done?
I'm sure it'll be on Democracy Now! tomorrow. Not every news organization is live 24/7.
Awesome job. Classic flash mob in action.
So who is this Lord Monckton? Who is paying him to say what he does? Would his Lordshit have the balls to admit he is being paid and by whom???
Hey Vera, I love your cynicism. Yes, it's a good bet this Lord Monckton is on the take from some cabal of corporate special interests. It's undoubtedly threatened by the prospect of change. Change that would challenge the busines as usual approach which allows for a continuation to rake in the big profits regardless of consequences for the global environment. As a 73 year old, I take heart in the activism of those young people who challenged that phony symposium.
I just went to www.americansforprosperity.org. and posted "Green Jobs Now!" We'll see if my comment will appear since all comments there must pass through a filtering company called DISQUS.