#97: Fun fresh ways to fight fossils

On satire, sarcasm, and silliness

Phew, what a week, and it’s only Tuesday! Mōrena e te whanau,

There’s been some ridiculous news coming out this week: we won the dubious honour of being named Fossil of the Year at a COP28 run by oil execs for thinking about re-introducing new oil & gas drilling, a Te Tiriti review was raised (here’s how that crucial document also impacts climate change) and government departments were caught removing Te Reo from their documents before anything was actually confirmed about it.

It’s clear from the last election results that the general public (and the politicians and oil execs who we pay) that the climate message hasn’t been getting through to everyone. Social movements have always experimented with different communication strategies. We can adapt our messages and get creative in order to reach everyone.

When the news gets this ridiculous, satire can be one powerful communication strategy for cutting to the heart of why these things are as messed up as they sound. By punching up and exposing the ridiculous aspects of current affairs, satire has been used effectively by social movements in the past. 

Here’s some climate satire that we think really cuts to the heart of the matter (feel free to share it!). We especially love that most of them have a clear call to action!

• Satire, as used in Make My Money Matter’s video with the actress Olivia Colman

• Sarcasm, as used in this series of videos “translating” climate science  (although, it has been shown that “crisis language” can be off-putting for people who aren’t already worried about climate change so be careful with this one!)

• Satire + sarcasm combined, Juice TV Honest Government Ads and We Are Yellow Dot (by the producer of the film Don’t Look Up!)

We need more of this content, especially tailored to our Aotearoa context, and especially when it comes to our climate policies.

Also - last week was Climate Club’s second birthday! If you haven’t already, here’s an optional readers’ survey for us to learn more about how you’re finding our content:

What can we do today?

The most-clicked link from last week’s issue was the Kiwis in Climate open letter asking the new Prime Minister to reconsider lifting the future oil and gas exploration ban. It’s not too late to sign it!

🐝 If you have 5 minutes: Power to the people 

• Rather than tackle climate change, governments seem to be reacting to protesters by trying to remove their right to protest with regressive anti-protest laws. Peaceful protest is a right and it has a long history of leading to genuine change.
  Action: Show your support for Australia’s Declaration of our Right to Protest 

🐇 If you have 15 minutes: Find a fare weather friend

• Transport remains one of our biggest sources of emissions - and also, honestly, one of our biggest frustrations! How nice would it be to have affordable, consistent, accessible public transport rather than being stuck in a parking lot for three hours? So many climate solutions are an easy win-win for community and climate, and this is one of them.
  Action: Join Free Fare’s ongoing campaign by emailing your local MP about free fares

💃🏽 If you have 30 minutes or more: Spark a debate

• Next week the Electricity Authority will decide its ‘Consumer Care Guidelines’, which includes important things like not disconnecting people who are medically dependent on electricity. However, the guidelines are only voluntary, with no penalties for companies that ignore them! 🙄 This is part of the wider kaupapa around ensuring clean (i.e. renewable), affordable energy for all.
  Action: Write a letter to the Electricity Authority today, asking them to make the full set of guidelines mandatory as soon as possible, using this template by Common Grace Aotearoa.

• Online, Thursday 12pm: Continuing the energy theme, Mindful Money are hosting a session on making electricity clean, affordable, and resilient.
  Action: Join the Money for Good seminar

• On a different note, there are so many ways in which upholding Te Tiriti overlaps with the climate change challenge, including laws to protect nature, sustainable management of resources, reciprocity and trusteedom. Te Pāti Māori have organised a National nationwide protests about the Te Tiriti review:
  Action: Find your local march to join the protest, more details here.

In case you missed it!

• The Free Fares team are gearing up to submit their new petition pushing for the incoming government to retain the public transport discounts. Add your name to show this government that there is huge support for this! 

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That’s all for today, folks 👋🏽 Thanks for taking action. Enjoy this soothing issue from Kimberly Nicholas of We Can Fix It on a question we might all ask ourselves once in a while: When to Give Up on Climate?

See you next week, 

Dhanya & the Climate Club team

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