Providence, RI – Earth Day, 2008.
Footage available at http://www.greenwashguerrillas.org
Thomas Friedman, the author and NY Times columnist, was invited to Brown University to give a keynote speech on Earth Day, before a packed auditorium. His talk, titled “Green is the new Red, White and Blue” was about how corporate environmentalism (based on putting a price on the atmosphere, and investing in agrofuels and techno-fixes) can restore America to its “natural place in the global order.” This outrageous neoliberal capitalist propaganda was interrupted with a surprise visit from the Greenwash Guerrillas. After splattering him with two green cream pies, leaflets were thrown to the crowd, stating:
Thomas Friedman deserves a pie in the face…
* because of his sickeningly cheery applaud for free market capitalism’s conquest of the planet
* for telling the world that the free market and techno fixes can save us from climate change. From carbon trading to ethanol, these distractions are dangerous in and of themselves, while encouraging inaction with respect to the true problems at hand.
* for helping turn environmentalism into a fake plastic consumer product for the privileged
* For his long-standing support for the US Occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Such committed support to the US War Machine and its proxy states overseas cannot be masked behind any twisted mask of “green” – the US Military is the largest single emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.
* for his pure arrogance.
On behalf of the earth and all true environmentalists — we, the Greenwash
Guerrillas, declare Thomas Friedman’s “Green” as fake and toxic to human and planetary health as the cool-whip covering his face.
Meanwhile, while the planetary clock is ticking. If there are to be truly real solutions (and not capitalist false solutions) to the many problems we face, it will come out of transformative social movements and not corporate boardrooms. For these reasons, we challenge Thomas Friedman and all other green capitalists to a duel, in which we will continue to expose their shams while pointing towards the social movements in the Majority World that are already living solutions and transforming society towards a liveable, healthy, and non-corporate future based on justice not greed.