Fake Canada Climate Release - Yes Men, Behind Cimate Change Prank

The Yes Men appear to be behind A fake or prank press release that commits Canada to drastically reducing its Greenhouse Gas Emissions is causing chaos for Canada at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.The prank release also created a prank (WSJ) Wall Street Journal story and a phony United Nations website.

The Facebook page for the Yes Men - a playfully subversive group that plays pranks on big business and government - has extensive links to the various fake stories, that had officials in Copenhagen scrambling.

"The idea was to confuse the Canadian government, which set up a war room to positively spin their position in the debate even though everyone here knows that their position is a cruel joke," Yes Men member Mike Bonanno told the Associated Press"

Photos

Fake Canada Climate Release

see larger image

uploaded by Sudha Krishna

• 

  uploaded by Sudha Krishna | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Sudha Krishna | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Sudha Krishna | add comment

The prank release commits Canada to reducing its Greenhouse Gas Emissions. The fake release calls Canada's policy Agenda 2020. Here is a quote from the prank release.

"Agenda 2020 sets binding emissions reductions targets of 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and at least 80% by 2050, in line with the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and approaching the levels demanded by the African Group (link). The plan also introduces a new instrument, known as the "Climate Debt Mechanism" (CDM), committing Canada to much-needed funding to those developing countries facing the most dire consequences of climate change. CDM payments will begin with 1% and rise to the equivalent of 5% of Canada's GDP annually by 2030."

Another fake release was subsequently issued clarifying Environment Canada's policy. This prank release  pointed to a fake Wall Street Journal (WSJ) story.

When the dust still settling Canadian officials had this to say.

"More time should be dedicated to playing a constructive role instead of childish pranks," Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said in a statement.

The key to identifying the fake from the real Environment Canada media release is to look at the web address bar the fake looked like this enviro-canada dot ca. The real environment Canada web site would have an address string like this ec dot gc dotca. The real WSJ website address looks like this

All the fake sites used a "dash" online dot wsj dot com. The fake WSJ site address looks like this europe-wsj dot

No one has taken responsibility for the hoax but whoever is pulled off a sophisticated prank on the Canadian government and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

To get a sense of Canada "official" position on Climate Change check out the video below.

Videos

On the Road to Copenhagen

see larger video

sourced by Sudha Krishna