From cartoonist Marc Roberts, via Andy Revkin:
We await Josh.
A new apology today from 10:10’s director, to replace the half-witted first one. [Game show buzzer sounds] too little, too late.
Statement by Eugenie Harvey, Director of 10:10 UK
Last week, 10:10 made available a short film. Following the initial reaction to the film we removed it from our website and issued an apology on Friday 2 October.
Subsequently there has been negative comment about the film, particularly on blogs, and concern from others working hard to build support for action on climate change. We are very sorry if this has distracted from their efforts.
We are also sorry to our corporate sponsors, delivery partners and board members, who have been implicated in this situation despite having no involvement in the film’s production or release.
We will learn from this mistake. Today I have written to supporters and stakeholders explaining that we will review processes and procedures to make sure it cannot happen again. Responsibility for this process is being taken by the 10:10 board.
The media coverage of the film was not the kind of publicity we wanted for 10:10, nor for the wider movement to reduce carbon emissions.
If people have been in touch with us personally about the film, we will be replying to individual emails over the next few days. Meanwhile our thanks go out to all those who support 10:10 and who work to combat the threat of climate change.
Eugenie Harvey
Director, 10:10 UK
hello@1010uk.org
NYT’s Andrew Revkin says:
If the goal had been to convince people that environmental campaigners have lost their minds and to provide red meat (literally) to shock radio hosts and pundits fighting curbs on greenhouse gases, it worked like a charm. Of course the goal might have been buzz more than efficacy. Too often these days, that’s the online norm. They succeeded on that front. I, among many others, am forced to write about it. Congratulations.
…
I’d like to see the group’s sponsors, including Sony, figure out an upside to this effort. They should either state why they continue to provide support or pull out.
Ask and ye shall receive, WUWT commenter Katabasis notes:
Official response from Sony:
“Thank you for your email concerning the video released by the 10:10 climate change campaign group. Sony has supported the 10:10 climate change campaign because we share its objective to reduce carbon emissions. However, we strongly condemn the “No Pressure” video which was conceived, produced and released by 10:10 entirely without the knowledge or involvement of Sony. The company considers the video to be ill-conceived and in extremely bad taste. We also believe the video risks undermining the work of the many thousands of members of the public, schools and universities, local authorities and many businesses, of which Sony is one, who support the long-term aims of the 10:10 movement and who are actively working towards the reduction of carbon emissions.
As a result we have taken the decision to disassociate ourselves from 10:10 at this time.
In our press statement we will be posting tomorrow morning we reaffirm our ongoing commitment to the reduction of global carbon emissions as part of our ‘Road to Zero’ environmental plan.”
First seen here:
http://ktwop.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/sony-disassociate-themselves-from-1010/
Paul Chesser at the American Spectator writes:
It looks like Sony and Kyocera Mita have demanded their removal from all associations with the extremist climate group 10:10.org, which produced that exploding schoolchildren video last week. The corporations’ names have been removed from the list of partners, and a lengthy post by Sony’s point-person on climate change, Naomi Climer, has been deleted from the 10:10 site.
Not only that, but a huge U.S. environmentalist promoter and partner, 350.org (headed by Bill McKibben), is no longer listed as an organizational partner. Both 10:10 and 350 have been heavily promoting an October 10 (10/10/10) “global workday” to supposedly bring fresh attention to the global warming threat. The message from 350.org’s press shop:
We respect 10:10’s previous work to encourage companies, schools, and churches to voluntarily cut their carbon emissions 10%. Upon seeing the video, however, we have informed 10:10 that we can no longer remain partners on 10/10/10 or any other initiative. 350.org maintains an absolute commitment to nonviolence in word and deed.
Ow, that’s gotta hurt.
More from NYT:
This from the article suggests that the 10:10 blunder has sucked all the online oxygen out of the environmental movement:
A YouTube repost (of the 10:10 video) by a third party Thursday got more than 149,000 views over the weekend and elicited more than 2,300 comments. Several other versions have topped 100,000 views, as well.
A Sierra Club video featuring a National Football League player warning that coal ash is a health threat to children got 95 YouTube views during the same interval.
And speaking of oxygen, the list of sponsors dwindles, and then there was one:
O2 is the only sponsor holdout thus far, we’ll see how long that lasts.
Post your updates and latest tips below, and I’ll include important ones here in the body of the post.
====================================================
1. Oh, and I should add this for Mr. Gareth Renowden, of “Hot Topic” New Zealand, the purported leading global warming website of New Zealand
Well Gareth, looks like your wrongheaded opinion of “sense of humour failure” has been falsified. Time to come clean and admit you’ve boobed.
Sony’s European Head Office in Weybridge is about 1 mile from here.
Any amusing/seditious/ace wizzbang ideas of a stunt I could pull outside on 10/10? Just a thought……
I’m a teacher and I live down the road from Camden School for Girls. I will be contacting the headteacher very soon to make them aware of the general public revulsion about this film (although I’m sure they may be aware already).
BTW I emailed O2 to register my disgust (I’m a customer of their’s). ‘Sarah’ from the press office told me they don’t sponsor 10:10. Oh dear – I think I’ll just have to send her the link to 10:10’s sponsor web-page!
Latimer Alder,
I suppose you could pop some tomato juice filled balloons, or have a red dye filled water balloon fight. If people were wearing mostly white clothing, it could be an impressive photo op and probably fun also (as long as you didn’t care much about needing to wash your clothes after).
I got a slightly different reply from O2 yesterday ……. at 4 October 2010 10:23:42 AM GMT+01:00 from sarah.taylor@o2.com ……. saying they do not sponsor 10:10 !!
“Hi Peter,
Thank you for your email to [the O2 press office].
O2 is not a sponsor of 10:10. Along with 100,000 members of the public, leading businesses, schools and universities, local authorities and NHS Trusts, O2 supports the aims of the 10:10 campaign. We acknowledge our responsibility to the environment and are committed to reducing our carbon emissions both as an organisation and in society as a whole. 10:10 is an independent organisation and we don’t ask for editorial control over the content of its campaigns.
Kind regards
Sarah”
Peter Maddock,
Having received the same reply that from O2 that you did, I decided to send them the following e-mail:
‘As a customer of O2, I recently sent an e-mail to you regarding your support of the 10:10 campaign. I wrote to express my disgust at the violent and vindictive ‘No Pressure’ film that was made by the 10:10 group, and suggested that you may want to withdraw your sponsorship of such a group. A member of your team called Sarah replied to my e-mail with the following message (my emphasis):
“O2 is not a sponsor of 10:10. Along with 100,000 members of the public, leading businesses, schools and universities, local authorities and NHS Trusts, O2 supports the aims of the 10:10 campaign. We acknowledge our responsibility to the environment and are committed to reducing our carbon emissions both as an organisation and in society as a whole. 10:10 is an independent organisation and we don’t ask for editorial control over the content of its campaigns”
As you can see from the above, Sarah clearly stated that O2 did sponsor the 10:10 group or their campaign. However on 10:10’s website I found a picture of one of your shop windows clearly displaying the 10:10 logo:
I also found the following on 10:10’s site:
“SPONSORS
O2
O2 is the UK’s leading provider of mobile phones, broadband and SIMs. O2 is partnering with 10:10 as part of its Think Biginitiative and will be selling 10:10 Tags in its shops across the UK”
The link can be found here:
http://www.1010global.org/uk/partners
Either your employee, Sarah, was lying to me or she is unaware of the major campaigns your company is involved in. I presume it is the latter.
Would you please confirm to me as to whether or not you will be withdrawing your sponsorship of the 10:10 organisation, who have created a film that encourages violence towards people (especially children) merely because they hold a different view to other people regarding an un-proven theory such as AGW.
(Please note, that other major sponsors of 10:10, such as Sony, have publicly withdrawn their sponsorship of 10:10)
Regards,
Andrew Wilkins’
Whoops,
For some reason in my last post, the copy of my e-mail failed to show my added emphasis of ‘O2 is not a sponsor of 10:10’
Seems the bold function decided not to work when I copied the e-mail to my post.
It also didn’t show the picture of the shop window that I’d included in the e-mail.
Never mind, I’m sure you got the drift of my e-mail!
BTW Had a look at the Ashden Trust website, see here
10:10 video “No Pressure”
The Ashden Trust shares the concern that has been expressed about the 10:10 video, “No Pressure”. We are pleased to see that 10:10 has withdrawn the video and apologised publicly for any offence caused. As the apology makes clear, those who have supported 10:10 had “no involvement in the film’s production or release”. The Trust remains committed to the stated goals of the 10:10 campaign, which is to encourage the reduction of CO2 emissions by 10% by the end of 2010.
Again, the weak excuse of we had no editorial control, therefore not our problem is used.
Note: This trust is part of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts – i.e Sainsbury Supermarkets… anyone for shopping at Tesco or M&S instead?
If Mr Harvey was really sorry he could use some of the money they are getting from the government and their sponsors to train himself and everyone involved in this project in scientific method. Raising awarenes about how scientific method works and it’s requirement of, for example, experimental reproducibility would be so much more valuable to everyone than this piece of filth they produced.
Of course if you understand scientific method at all it is pretty darn hard to believe in CAGW.
One has to wonder if the intention of Curtis, et al, was to ramp up the militancy among the eco-nuts. Don’t get me wrong – I’m an environmentalist – but I’m not swayed by green politics or by the rantings of militant ecoism.
The offending video is the eco equivalent of other militant groups, whether they be those in Northern Ireland or in the Middle East: Agree with us, be one of us, or we’ll kill you.
Maybe Curtis did intend it as a spoof; a Pythonesque parody that went horribly wrong.
But, imho, the worst aspect of it is that it’s likely to encourage the militants and ignorant politicians to increase the amount of idiotic legislation and moronic court decisions (Kingsnorth vandals) that now seem the norm in the UK.
They are sorry that they miscalculated and that, thanks to the internet, and some bloggers raising a stink about it, creating a tsunami of protests and they had to take it down. They are sorry for the damage it has done to their organization, groups that supported them, and the CAGW/CC/CD cause in general.
We, on the other hand should be grateful to them for this unexpected gift, providing a disturbing look into the blackened soul of an entire movement based on a lie. So, thank you Franny, Eugenie, and all your friends. And I mean that with all sincerity.
Well here’s my email to O2
They will know that I represent more than one account as they have my email on record
DaveE.
@Patrick Guinness (October 4, 2010 at 6:22 pm) – you’re sorry for being an Arsenal fan? Well how do you think I feel? I’m Spurs and a skeptic!?! 🙁
Good to see Sony take immediate action when the true nature of this organisation became clear.