yes men

Media Heist Blankets City With "Special Edition" New York Post

Twyla
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22 Sep 2009
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On Monday morning, nearly a million New Yorkers were stunned by the appearance of a "special edition" New York Post blaring headlines that their city could face deadly heat waves, extreme flooding and other lethal effects of global warming within the next few decades. The most alarming thing about it: the news came from an official city report.

Distributed throughout New York City by over 2,000 volunteers, the paper was created by the Yes Men and a coalition of activists as a wake-up call to action on climate change. It appeared one day before a UN summit during which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pushed 100 world leaders to make serious commitments to reduce carbon emissions in the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate conference in December. Ki-moon has said that the world has "less than 10 years to halt [the] global rise in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences for people and the planet," adding that Copenhagen is a "once-in-a-generation opportunity."

Although the 32-page New York Post is a fake, everything in it is 100% true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts. The paper reports on expected effects of climate change in New York, the Pentagon's alarmed response to global warming, the US government's sadly miniscule response to the crisis, China's alternative energy program and more. It also features some original investigative reporting, including a story that reveals the Deutsche Bank, which erected a seven-story "carbon counter" in Manhattan, not only invests in coal-mining companies, but has recently entered the business of coal trading itself.

But the paper isn't all doom and gloom – it details how New York is fighting back, features a page of black-humor cartoons, a gossip section and a number of truly cheerful ads.

"This could be, and should be, a real New York Post," said Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men. "Climate change is the biggest threat civilization has ever faced, and it should be in the headlines of every paper, every day until we solve the problem."

Photo by Driven by Boredom

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