{"id":405,"date":"2007-06-14T23:10:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-15T07:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=405"},"modified":"2007-06-14T23:10:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-15T07:10:00","slug":"the-yes-men-do-exxon-mobil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/the-yes-men-do-exxon-mobil\/","title":{"rendered":"The Yes Men do Exxon-Mobil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_IwnSQPl-J_I\/RnI9fysEmjI\/AAAAAAAAAQo\/NiVdEDztZ50\/s1600-h\/005-tribute-begins.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;\" data-src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_IwnSQPl-J_I\/RnI9fysEmjI\/AAAAAAAAAQo\/NiVdEDztZ50\/s400\/005-tribute-begins.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5076187346391833138\" border=\"0\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><\/a><br \/>The Yes Men are at it again \u2014 hilarious, over the top, yet &#8220;dead&#8221; serious &#038; one of the most outrageous agit-prop happening\/performance groups at work right now:<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<blockquote><p>June 14, 2007<br \/>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n<p>EXXON PROPOSES BURNING HUMANITY FOR FUEL IF CLIMATE CALAMITY HITS<br \/>Conference organizer fails to have Yes Men arrested<\/p>\n<p>  Text of speech, photos, video <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vivoleum.com\/event\/\">here<\/a>.<br \/>  GO-EXPO statement <a href=\"http:\/\/newswire.ca\/en\/releases\/archive\/June2007\/14\/c5086.html\">here<\/a>.<br \/>  Press conference before this event, Friday, Calgary, <a href=\"http:\/\/arusha.org\/event\/7214\">here<\/a>.<br \/>  Contact: mailto:fuel@theyesmen.org<br \/>  More links at end of release.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Imposters posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC)<br \/>representatives delivered an outrageous keynote speech to 300 oilmen<br \/>at GO-EXPO, Canada&#8217;s largest oil conference, held at Stampede Park in<br \/>Calgary, Alberta, today.<\/div>\n<p>The speech was billed beforehand by the GO-EXPO organizers as the<br \/>major highlight of this year&#8217;s conference, which had 20,000<br \/>attendees. In it, the &#8220;NPC rep&#8221; was expected to deliver the long-awaited<br \/>conclusions of a study commissioned by US Energy Secretary<br \/>Samuel Bodman. The NPC is headed by former ExxonMobil CEO Lee<br \/>Raymond, who is also the chair of the study. (See link at end.)<\/p>\n<p>In the actual speech, the &#8220;NPC rep&#8221; announced that current U.S. and<br \/>Canadian energy policies (notably the massive, carbon-intensive<br \/>exploitation of Alberta&#8217;s oil sands, and the development of liquid<br \/>coal) are increasing the chances of huge global calamities. But he<br \/>reassured the audience that in the worst case scenario, the oil<br \/>industry could &#8220;keep fuel flowing&#8221; by transforming the billions of<br \/>people who die into oil.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need something like whales, but infinitely more abundant,&#8221; said<br \/>&#8220;NPC rep&#8221; &#8220;Shepard Wolff&#8221; (actually Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men),<br \/>before describing the technology used to render human flesh into a<br \/>new Exxon oil product called Vivoleum. 3-D animations of the process<br \/>brought it to life.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Vivoleum works in perfect synergy with the continued expansion of<br \/>fossil fuel production,&#8221; noted &#8220;Exxon rep&#8221; &#8220;Florian Osenberg&#8221; (Yes<br \/>Man Mike Bonanno). &#8220;With more fossil fuels comes a greater chance of<br \/>disaster, but that means more feedstock for Vivoleum. Fuel will<br \/>continue to flow for those of us left.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The oilmen listened to the lecture with attention, and then lit<br \/>&#8220;commemorative candles&#8221; supposedly made of Vivoleum obtained from the<br \/>flesh of an &#8220;Exxon janitor&#8221; who died as a result of cleaning up a<br \/>toxic spill. The audience only reacted when the janitor, in a video<br \/>tribute, announced that he wished to be transformed into candles<br \/>after his death, and all became crystal-clear.<\/p>\n<p>At that point, Simon Mellor, Commercial &amp; Business Development<br \/>Director for the company putting on the event, strode up and<br \/>physically forced the Yes Men from the stage. As Mellor escorted<br \/>Bonanno out the door, a dozen journalists surrounded Bichlbaum, who,<br \/>still in character as &#8220;Shepard Wolff,&#8221; explained to them the<br \/>rationale for Vivoleum.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to get ready. After all, fossil fuel development like that<br \/>of my company is increasing the chances of catastrophic climate<br \/>change, which could lead to massive calamities, causing migration and<br \/>conflicts that would likely disable the pipelines and oil wells.<br \/>Without oil we could no longer produce or transport food, and most of<br \/>humanity would starve. That would be a tragedy, but at least all<br \/>those bodies could be turned into fuel for the rest of us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re not talking about killing anyone,&#8221; added the &#8220;NPC rep.&#8221; &#8220;We&#8217;re<br \/>talking about using them after nature has done the hard work. After<br \/>all, 150,000 people already die from climate-change related effects<br \/>every year. That&#8217;s only going to go up &#8211; maybe way, way up. Will it<br \/>all go to waste? That would be cruel.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Security guards then dragged Bichlbaum away from the reporters, and<br \/>he and Bonanno were detained until Calgary Police Service officers<br \/>could arrive. The policemen, determining that no major infractions<br \/>had been committed, permitted the Yes Men to leave.<\/p>\n<p>Canada&#8217;s oil sands, along with &#8220;liquid coal,&#8221; are keystones of Bush&#8217;s<br \/>Energy Security plan. Mining the oil sands is one of the dirtiest<br \/>forms of oil production and has turned Canada into one of the world&#8217;s<br \/>worst carbon emitters. The production of &#8220;liquid coal&#8221; has twice the<br \/>carbon footprint as that of ordinary gasoline. Such technologies<br \/>increase the likelihood of massive climate catastrophes that will<br \/>condemn to death untold millions of people, mainly poor.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If our idea of energy security is to increase the chances of climate<br \/>calamity, we have a very funny sense of what security really is,&#8221;<br \/>Bonanno said. &#8220;While ExxonMobil continues to post record profits,<br \/>they use their money to persuade governments to do nothing about<br \/>climate change. This is a crime against humanity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Putting the former Exxon CEO in charge of the NPC, and soliciting<br \/>his advice on our energy future, is like putting the wolf in charge<br \/>of the flock,&#8221; said &#8220;Shepard Wolff&#8221; (Bichlbaum). &#8220;Exxon has done more<br \/>damage to the environment and to our chances of survival than any<br \/>other company on earth. Why should we let them determine our future?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  Read bout the NPC and ExxonMobil <a href=\"http:\/\/ga3.org\/campaign\/lee_raymond\/explanation\">here<\/a>.<br \/>  And about the Alberta oil sands <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sierraclub.ca\/prairie\/tarnation.htm\">here<\/a>:<br \/>  About liquid coal <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sierraclub.org\/coal\/liquidcoal\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Yes Men are at it again \u2014 hilarious, over the top, yet &#8220;dead&#8221; serious &#038; one of the most outrageous agit-prop happening\/performance groups at work right now: June 14, 2007FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE EXXON&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agit-prop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}