Four Horsemen of the Apocalyse Appear in Copenhagen, Scare No One

Posted by at Dec 15th, 2009 in Activism

Filed under: Activism , Climate Change

Blame it on a public used to movies filled with gory and realistic CGI monsters, like the really scary skull headed dudes on horses in “Lord of the Rings.” Yesterday Greenpeace did a protest reenactment of the Bible’s biggest terror-mongers and harbingers of doom, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and it was just sort of … meh. Not scary at all.

Four protesters with some amateurish face paint and costumes borrowed from the Eastville, PA, junior high wardrobe cabinet, don’t make much of an impression on an average Monday, nevermind in the middle of Copenhagen when every activist is there with their “nudity/fake bloody polar bear/effigy of a world-leader-on-a-stick” A-game.

Which is a shame, because the Greenpeace message was actually pretty smart, and pretty scary.

The goal of the protest was to remind all of the world leaders gathered in Copenhagen that failure to act will have serious consequences, i.e. famine, death, war and pestilence.

Greenpeace says that we need to keep the global temperature increase under 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or else our food supplies will fail, there will be major outbreaks of diseases, the crazy weather — heat waves and floods! — will get worse, and there will be huge population migrations which will lead to conflict.

According to Greenpeace, “an estimated 300,000 people are already dying due to climate change every year,” and that death toll will rise unless governments — not just individuals composting and recycling their Smartwater bottles — take big action, and darn fast.

So in other words, the actions of our elected officials will either save the world, or bring on complete destruction. And they’re on a deadline.

See? Scary.

Greenpeace always has another protest on the schedule, and I’m sure they’ll bring the big banners and drama next time. But maybe it was a good thing, to see that the organization is capable of a bit of nuance. In fact, I think it lends a certain credibility. That’s what caught my attention this week, amidst all of the other dramatic, neon-bright protests.

Cheers to the quiet, dignified Greenpeace “World is Ending, On Horses” demonstration. Nice work! Four Horsemen of the Apocalyse Appear in Copenhagen, Scare No One originally appeared on Green Daily on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:03:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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Four Horsemen of the Apocalyse Appear in Copenhagen, Scare No One

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