The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been at the center of a storm of controversy over its position on climate change lately. In August, it called for a public hearing on global warming that its senior vice president, William Kovacs, unwisely asserted would be "the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century." Several companies have left the Chamber in protest at its position, most recently and notably Apple.
So it was big news when the Chamber held a press conference at the National Press Club on Monday, effectively renouncing its previously-expressed views, calling for a carbon tax and urging President Obama to negotiate a strong agreement at the Copenhagen climate change summit in December.
Except, of course, that wasn't really the Chamber of Commerce at the podium, but the Yes Men, described on Wikipedia as "a group of culture jamming activists who practice what they call 'identity correction' by pretending to be powerful people and spokespersons for prominent organizations."
Several media outlets - including Fox Business Channel and CNBC - had already gone live with the news of the Chamber's new position before a real Chamber spokesperson alerted to the ruse, burst in on the press conference - in the proces inadvertently helping to elevate the Yes Men's theater and achieve the activists' goal of highlighting the organization's opposition to climate change legislation.
Tags: Climate Change
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