Thousands upon thousands of fired-up people around Australia banded together on September 20 as part of an absolutely ginormous worldwide rally – dubbed the “Global Climate Strike” – to protest environmental inaction and all the politicians who are dawdling on the issue.
It was powerful, inspirational and it also gave us some brilliant protest signs that’ll make you laugh while reviving your hope in humanity.
But as the universe is wont to do when it comes to positive acts like the Global Climate Strike, there are some angry, agenda-pushing folk out there who are trying to ruin it for everyone.
Following the rally that took place in Sydney, where around 80,000 people crammed into the Domain, a Facebook group called the Australian Youth Coal Coalition sought to stir the pot by falsely claiming that Climate Strike protesters left an ungodly mess in Hyde Park after everyone had gone home.
The Facebook post spread like wildfire when it was posted and quickly garnered thousands of shares, comments and reactions.
However, don’t believe a single thing about that post because it’s all fake.
Based on old posts, the group is likely nothing more than a satirical thing. As for the viral post itself, the photo was actually taken back in April 2019 during an annual, unofficial marijuana event in London. To be fair, the photo was taken in Hyde Park – just not Sydney’s one.
Aside from the fact that a quick Google reverse image search will debunk the post immediately, it appears the Australian Youth Coal Coalition didn’t realise the photo has been used numerous times for so many scare campaigns that it’s essentially a stock image for “messy park” at this point.
But maybe that’s the point of it all.
But rather than own up to the false claim, the Australian Youth Coal Coalition doubled down and posted a follow up photo of a green lawn with no identifying features and claiming that a group of “young coal supporters” volunteered to clean up the fake mess left by the Climate Strike protesters.
A Facebook group named the Australian Youth Coal Coalition trying to smear protesters rallying against environmental inaction. Surely it has to be a parody thing as we seriously can’t imagine why they would lie about about something like the Climate Strike.
Fair effort to them for trying to keep up the facade/joke despite having more holes in it than a wheel of Swiss cheese.
So if you see this fake Facebook post about Sydney or similar ones making the rounds, don’t get suckered into the (supposed) joke.
Climate change is most definitely real and the Global Climate Strike was a monumental event that will hopefully result in some meaningful action before it’s too late.