Note: This story is intended to be listened to. Text associated below is simply a transcript of the audio.
Imagine sitting at a meeting of business and political leaders being held at a fancy hotel.
Back in 2019, members of the so-called Indigenous Pipeline Council, or IPC, made their pitch at such a hotel in downtown Duluth, Minnesota.
“Our ancestors moved freely to supply their changing energy needs. Now, today, it’s the energy that does the moving. And we at the IPC help to move it.”
The two men making the pitch wore American flag button-down shirts and black suits. In the now 5-year-old video, they proposed an Indigenous-led oil development. That’s right: They said a Big Oil company had asked them to bring the pipeline through sacred sites of wealthy, white and urban Duluth. What they promised them echoes what Indigenous nations have been falsely promised, over and over again, over the years.
In the video the audience looks uncomfortable, or at best, confused.
“We all know we can’t remove risk entirely but when there were tens of millions of us inhabiting North America, we kept the peace by sharing the risk fairly. And that’s what our pipeline plan does — ensures that those who share in the wealth from oil production and transportation, also share in the risk.”
The press conference was short: After showing a few maps and data in support of their pipeline project, they said they’d provide for the community. And then, Coyote Mick Tomi took off his suit jacket and asked the audience to join in the Dance of the Black Snake.
“So generally we close our meetings with a song and a dance… This song and this dance is to ward off evil spirits and negative energy…”
The video goes on for only a few minutes — a few long and cringey minutes. The so-called “Peace Pipeline” sounds disturbing until you understand that those two men are comedians and what they’re doing is satirizing an unknowing audience, presenting a world that’s upside-down.
I tried contacting the actors behind Peace Pipeline, Gitz Crazyboy and Tito Ybarra. I got no reply.
I also tried a representative of the Yes Men, an activist and artist collective that’s been around since 1996.
The Yes Men collaborated with Gitz Crazyboy and Tito Ybarra back in 2019.
I’ve known about the Yes Men since the 90s, when they were making fun of greenwashing efforts and misinformation tactics. Their targets have often been all-powerful organizations like the World Trade Organization and Dow Chemical.
This bending of reality with biting satire can, “crack a little rift that opens the possibility for hope.”
A couple of days after my call to Jeff Walburn — not his real name — I heard back from him, via email.
“A project like the spoof Peace Pipeline sums up the core American myth,” he told me. “You know, white men were destined to manifest their destiny all over these lands, extract commodifiable resources, exterminate its people, and profit from its destruction because we are ordained to be infallible and righteous.”
But this bending of reality with biting satire can — quote — “crack a little rift that opens the possibility for hope. At minimum, it simply questions what very powerful and monied entities would rather us swallow unthinkingly,” — end quote.
“Dissonex is the first neuro inhibitor to treat the dissonance we feel when our ethics clash with our ambitions. …”
I often think about this satirical approach to our current climate crisis moment. Don’t they say humor is the best medicine?
Here’s another more recent parody by the Yes Men: Dissonex. A supplement, quote, that boosts the brain’s ability to compartmentalize contradicting values.
“Some investments I manage have climate effects, but I can assure my clients only happy returns… with Dissonex. …”
Jeff from the Yes Men calls them “trickster” tactics. No longer stuck in the ‘90s, they are adapting to new technologies and targeting new players — not just Big Oil, but the banks, insurers and asset managers whose investments enable them keep starting new fossil fuel projects. They’re also collaborating with other activists and artists, like Gitz Crazyboy and Tito Ybarra of the Peace Pipeline.
“… If the dissonances of modern life get you down, ask your doctor if Dissonex is right for you… Dissonex — How do you sleep at night?”
Climate comedy is nothing new — think John Oliver’s HBO show, Last Week Tonight, or Yellow Dot Studios’ productions in Los Angeles, a nonprofit media studio challenging climate inaction.There are even academic departments studying the phenomenon, like the Media and Climate Change Observatory at the University of Colorado Boulder. In a blog about their research, they say that humor, quote, “can provide emotional relief as it lowers people’s defenses and the promise and possibility for envisioning positive change.”
Two years ago, students from the University of Colorado Boulder took part in a standup comedy show.
“So, I’m not gonna dilly-dally, we all know why we’re here, right? We’re here to talk about how we can unscrew the Earth. … Today, I’m gonna tell you guys how you can fight climate change by getting stoned!” (laughter)
It’s simple, the young comedian says: Plant cannabis in empty lots; they suck up the carbon from the atmosphere. … The only downside is that you have to smoke the plant!
I, for one, crave this kind of creative activism on behalf of the planet. And I want to see more of it: Make us question ourselves and our customs. Tell us how we’re all implicated. Humor can be the first step towards changing our ways.
Original audio by Ruxandra Guidi, with additional audio from The Yes Men and the 2022 Inside the Greenhouse climate comedy special, from CU Boulder.
“Encounters” is a serial column exploring life and landscape during the climate crisis.
