At a satirical press conference in Washington, D.C. this week, activists unveiled a new name and logo for the Environmental Protection Agency, which they called “the Environmental Pollution Agency.” On the new logo, buildings are swallowed up by rising sea levels. The event included a spokesperson from the Environmental Pollution Agency, “Joe Gasfracker” from the “American Petroleum Institute,” and a spokesperson from the “Energy Villains for Increased Leakage.” Participants in the action leaned into the satire and held signs with slogans such as “we support the freedom to pollute.”
BASAV SEN; [email protected]
Sen is Climate Justice Project Director at the Institute for Policy Studies and participated in the satirical press conference.
Sen told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “As everyone knows at this point, the Trump administration is on the warpath against any kind of environmental regulation and any constraints on the profits of polluting corporations, regardless of the price paid in terms of air and water contamination, public health, and communities’ rights––not to mention the threat of climate change.
“A conversation began on one of the various Signal groups that activists use in Washington, D.C. to coordinate and plan actions. We do more serious actions all the time, so the idea came up that we could mock [the administration] for what they’re doing, as a way to put our message out there in a different way. What put us over the edge was the rescinding of the so-called ‘endangerment finding,’ which provides the legal basis for the U.S. government to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant. That was the last straw for activists.
“Satire is surprising and catches the eye. Some of us have worked at the intersection of activism and street theater––so for us, this action wasn’t outside the bounds of what we had done before… Satire and humor reach a broader audience and do very important things. For one, it’s fun to do and lifts our spirits. That is not something to be trivialized. People in movements for social and environmental justice have never had it easy, and today it’s particularly hard. Anything that lifts our spirits and energizes us that way keeps us engaged and makes it easier for us to fight another day––and that matters. Satire is also unexpected, surprising, and different. People who otherwise might be too jaded to pay attention might actually turn around and pay attention to the message when it’s fresh and different. And satire also gets under the skin of the people we are fighting against more than just another demonstration.
“The media narrative around everything that this administration is doing is not actually connecting the dots between, for example, what’s happening around immigration and the assault on the environment, the bullying of other countries with coercive tariffs, the attack on science across the board. This assault is happening in the arena of environmental policy but also in the arena of public health. A lot of the media is doing a disservice by not identifying the through lines. These actions are not disparate, with no rhyme nor reason. Rather, they are part of an authoritarian power grab on behalf of powerful corporate interests.”