Last week, the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Power held a meeting discussing the details of President Obama's Climate Action Plan. In the audience were members of an organization called "Polluter Watch," a group dedicated to taking action against "corporate polluters [and] their influence peddlers." However, these members garnered a great deal of attention as they all wore tinfoil hats to the hearing. This was a jab at Committee Chair Fred Upton, a Conservative who is viewed to be an "enemy" by many environmentalists. This stunt got even more attention when the Sierra Club tweeted: "Hey, - these folks at the hearing have your hat for you when you are done. " (for those that don't understand, tinfoil hats are worn by people who believe it will prevent mind control by outside forces, thus implying that Upton is being manipulated by corporate interests).
One historic way environmental organizations have gotten their voice out is through peaceful, yet attention-grabbing demonstration. With social media, these stunts can spread across the world in a matter of minutes. Polluter Watch has only 717 Twitter followers (no word on how many followers were before the stunt), but being tweeted by The Sierra Club, who has over 81,000 followers certainly got their name out there. The other thing that makes this stunt interesting is that it uses humor. In politics, debate is often a process of push and pull, and these forces eventually cancel out. But humor is a great way to transcend the dullness of debate, and can often be a very effective way to make a point, when used properly.
One drawback of this stunt is that some people may have a hard time deciphering what exactly Polluter Watch is trying to say, but this small environmental organization did manage to successfully get their name out there.
L.J.
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