A short film produced by a radical environmental group blew up in its face this week – because they somehow failed to consider that viewers would be neither amused nor motivated by the sight of exploding schoolchildren. 10:10 is an environmental group based in the United Kingdom that wants everyone in the developed world to reduce their carbon emissions by 10 per cent by the end of 2010. Toward that end, “Four Weddings and Funeral” writer Richard Curtis and music video and commercial director Dougal Wilson teamed up to film a four minute video entitled “No Pressure.” It’s a graphic, disgusting exercise in bad taste, but if you would like to see just how far environmental zealots are willing to go to make their dubious points, you can watch the video here.
For those who don’t care for blood and gore, here’s the synopsis: A school teacher, a business mogul, and some soccer players urge their on-screen compatriots to get on board with 10:10’s planet-saving carbon reduction program. “No pressure,” each environmental champion says, echoing the tag-line of the film that its producers find oh-so-ironic. That punch line, such as it is, is delivered and then, inevitably, a dissenter or two refuses to take the pledge. At that point, our heroes push a large red button which causes the stubborn miscreants to be blown to bits with as much blood and gore as 10:10 could fit on the screen, never to offend mother earth again. This is what passes as humor among global warming zealots.
“Many people found the resulting film extremely funny, but unfortunately some didn’t and 10:10 would like to apologize to everybody who was offended by the film,” 10:10 representatives said in a statement. It’s hard to understand what could possibly be funny about blowing people up who don’t buy into your fantasy. But, given that the first two offenders who meet explosive justice are an adolescent boy and girl in the middle of a classroom – executed by their teacher no less – the notion that any sane person could find humor in this abhorrent video defies comprehension.
Bowing to global outrage, 10:10 pulled the video from their website and the organization’s director, Eugene Harvey, issued an apology of sorts. “This media coverage for this film was not the kind of publicity we wanted for the cause of saving the climate, nor for 10:10, and we certainly didn’t mean to do anything to distract from all the efforts of those in other organisations who are working so hard to secure effective action on climate change,” he said. Nowhere in his statement did Harvey apologize for offending the public or for sending a grossly twisted message. His overriding concern was rather that “No Pressure” might be a distraction and thus get in the way of the important work that 10:10 and the well-heeled charitable foundations that support it are doing.
It should also be noted that 10:10 has made no effort to pull the video from YouTube or to prevent the public from sharing “No Pressure” around the Internet. It’s the kind of film that appeals to those keeping the “Jackass” film enterprise in business, and the activists at 10:10 surely know that. They can distance themselves from the video in public statements, but “No Pressure” is out there now and there’s no taking it back in this information age. It’s easy to imagine the powers-that-be at 10:10 exchanging high-fives galore. They’ve gotten a huge helping of the dish that every environmental group is starving for: world-wide attention. They’ve produced a viral video that has been, and will continue to be, viewed by millions. A pseudo-apology is a small price to pay for that kind of publicity.
The more telling response by 10:10 came from the organization’s founder in an interview with the Daily Telegraph shortly after the controversial video went viral. “We ‘killed’ five people to make No Pressure – a mere blip compared to the 300,000 real people who now die each year from climate change,” Franny Armstrong said.
In truth, the 300,000 corpses that supposedly fall to the grim reaper of climate change each year are about as theoretical as one can get. That number is generated by statisticians in the employ of the climate change industry who are paid to attribute particular droughts and floods to the horrors of man-made carbon dioxide, while steadfastly ignoring natural climate fluctuations. Imagine what would have happened if another group – an organization that could directly attribute actual deaths to actual acts – had made such a video. It is an indisputable fact that Muslim jihadists kill thousands of people each year. So, following Franny Armstrong’s logic, it would be entirely apropos for an Israeli filmmaker to produce a video featuring a few dozen young Muslims in a classroom with their teacher asking them to take a pledge to renounce violence. And, when a couple of them refuse to do so, there would be nothing at all wrong with that teacher pushing her magic button and blowing the stubborn pair to bloody bits. No pressure right? No pressure at all.
10:10’s “No Pressure” video is a chilling, all-too-honest peek inside the mind of today’s radical environmentalist. They are so utterly convinced that the world is in crisis and that they alone hold the key to solving that crisis that no tactic, no matter how reprehensible, is off limits. For all intents and purposes “No Pressure” was the world’s first environmental snuff film. As the champions of climate change grow ever more desperate to force their agenda down the throats of an increasingly skeptical world, it’s unlikely to be the last.
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