The divestment movement got a boost recently from an unexpected source.A hilarious and very Australian video (caution: swearing) link came across the Climate Access desk last week. It’s a satirical policy release for the Australian Coal Mining Industry’s new climate change policy. That policy is ‘F**k you’.
As the President of ‘Coal’ explains, the steps of taking action on climate change are in opposition to the self interest of the company, which is why they’ve decided to take ‘an intuitive step outside of the limitations of science based argument’ in implementing their policy of ‘F**k you’.
The CEO of ‘ACMC’ (which could be a spoof on the Australian Coal Association acronym) is very proud of the policy and states ‘F**k you is more than just a policy. It’s a philosophy, where we’re able to straddle the dichotomy between what we know is true and how we can benefit by ignoring that truth’.
The video makes its point when the same CEO points out that their policy is ultimately a reflection of the values of their shareholders. ‘Everyday Australians have chosen to invest $20billion into the company. But we prefer to think of it as 20billion f**k yous to the Australians of tomorrow’.
However, this strong case for divesting from coal, asking ‘what is your investment dollar doing?’ at the end of the video, isn’t attached to any organization or campaign. Climate Access contacted the director and creator of the video, John Nikolakopoulos who told us he made the video in his spare time. He is a filmmaker interested in storytelling and social research who tries to create stories and scripts that can cut through a disengaged public. He created the coal video because he felt the climate change message isn’t reaching the average person and is not being done justice.
Lack of an organized campaign behind the video aside, the standard Aussie bluntness should make anyone who has money invested in coal companies think twice about the message their money is sending. As the fake CEO in the video proudly says, they’re ensuring ‘solid returns to our shareholders, by killing their grandchildren’.
The director of the video is currently speaking with contacts in North America to create another version of the video that is targeted at Canadian and US audiences. If the next video is anywhere near as funny as this one, watch this space.
image via (cc) Koen Schepers, flickr
