Splattergate: a mistake

Last week I was shocked by a video that was to try and raise awareness about climate change. Campaign group 10:10 put out a video that saw anyone not wanting to play their part in tackling climate change explode - killing is the last thing any of us want - already people are dying from climate change. I am finding it very hard to understand how this could have been made...Richard Curtis, X-Files' film star Gillian Anderson (pictured) and others were involved?? Indeed 0 out of 10 to 10:10.

The film has already been branded as being made by eco-fascists and has led to lots of comment on the internet about this movie, dubbed as 'Splattergate' - comments rightly ask if this is about how those of us wanting to tackle climate change would like to silence our critics. It has also fueled the climate change deniers like Dominic Lawson - see here. Adrian Ramsay, The Green Party's Deputy Leader has already responded with a letter:

Dominic Lawson has a point in his critique of that bizarre film by 10:10. Most Greens I have spoken to feel that the tactics used in the film were inappropriate and counter-productive. But the rest of Mr Lawson’s argument wouldn’t make a very convincing film either, and nor does it demonstrate much wit. First he dismisses climate change as being attributable to factors other than human activity, which is simply at variance with scientific opinion. Then he completely misunderstands what happened at Copenhagen.

At Copenhagen, and indeed in international climate negotiations generally, we don’t actually see Greens negotiating. We see European governments that don’t fully understand the problem trying to impose on the governments of developing countries something that the latter are rightly suspicious of. If these negotiations were led by Green politicians, firstly we ourselves would be demonstrating the social and economic benefits of transformation to a low-carbon society – including energy security, strong local communities and lasting, skilled jobs. And secondly, Greens would be pushing for a “contraction and convergence” model which would recognise that poorer countries are still developing and need to be helped onto the path of sustainable development, with richer countries taking on their fair share of the necessary global carbon reductions.

Climate activist, Bill McKibben criticises the film makers saying: "There's no question that crap like this will cast a long shadow over our efforts, and everyone else who's working on global warming. We're hard at work, as always, but we're doing it today with a sunk and sad feeling" - see full comment here. And if you must see the video here.

Thankfully 10:10 have withdrawn the film from their site and issued a statement that includes a clear apology. We must indeed learn from this. I hope this wont stop folk supporting 10:10 as their campaigns to date have been creative, innovative and have successfully got the message to many places.