On the Gulf Coast, as consideration has turned to the event of Tropical Storm Francine, staff inside Enterprise International’s liquified pure gasoline (LNG) plant in Plaquemines Parish are getting ready for the upcoming storm – amongst different issues. Simply final week, federal regulators gave Enterprise International the go-ahead to begin cooling the plant’s tools forward of the export of its first cargo of LNG.

Mainly, Enterprise International is busy. However all of the sudden, the corporate discovered itself the goal of a satirical technique of opposition generally known as “trickster activism.”

The primary indicators of the tricksters got here on Sept. 5, when a flurry of e-mail and postcards appeared to hail a brand new partnership between Enterprise International LNG and an organization known as Repaer, whose jarring mission is to assist vitality firms offset the lack of human life.

“Lack of life is inevitable within the vitality trade,” learn Thursday’s press launch, “however with Repaer, you’ll be able to convey these losses to web zero.”

It did appear somewhat odd that the flurry of shiny postcards arrived in locations most certainly to oppose Enterprise International’s work – within the mailboxes of residents in New Orleans and in Cameron Parish, on the western fringe of the state, the place Enterprise International has already constructed one of many nation’s largest LNG export amenities. Although Enterprise International is now constructing a second, $10 billion facility in Calcasieu Go, fishers and environmental teams have sued the Federal Power Regulatory Fee for permitting that building on high of the opposite facility, which they are saying destroys the native fishing trade and provides poisonous emissions to an already-polluted space.

The postcard messages, although fantastically designed, have been additionally somewhat darkish.

The postcard despatched in Cameron Parish thanked the group for individuals who have already “sacrificed their lives”— to the elevated export of liquified pure gasoline.

The postcards’ QR code results in Repaer’s web site, which outlines the corporate’s measurement of the vitality trade’s mortal impacts. 

Insurance coverage firms broadly use a metric known as Human Life Worth (HLV) to measure the influence of misplaced lives via financial output.

However Repaer takes it a step farther, describing how its formulation differentiates between excessive and low human life worth. 

“As an example, a Fortune 500 CEO has a really excessive HLV, whereas a instructor or a fisherman has a a lot decrease HLV,” its web site explains. 

On Monday morning, Enterprise International LNG appeared to ship a press launch threatening authorized motion in opposition to the hoax. However that press launch, and all the messages main as much as it, have been fabricated by Modest Proposals, an activist collective devoted to creating optimistic change.

The group makes use of trickster activism, or “laughtivism,” to convey consideration to societal ills, within the custom of political satirists The Sure Males. 

“We make use of these ways due to the repressive legal guidelines so many states, particularly Louisiana, have handed proscribing protesters’ rights,” stated Jim Haugen, media spokesperson for the Modest Proposals. “When conventional types of protest are being attacked, activists need to adapt their strategies to get their message throughout.”

You’ve heard of carbon offsets, however what about life offsets?

Past hundreds of postcards and pretend press releases, Modest Proposals created movies to elucidate Repaer’s “life offsets” program to convey Enterprise International LNG’s “human footprint” to web zero.

In New Orleans, Repaer despatched postcards selling a “Plasma Pal” program that inspired dad and mom to enroll their kids in a plasma-donation program, to increase the lives of a rich, or “Excessive Life Worth” recipient, who would additionally function the kid’s mentor. 

The postcard directed dad and mom to Repaer’s web site, full with a video of a ‘physician’ endorsing this system.

“As impurities are launched from Enterprise International’s amenities, they’ve unavoidable impacts on lifespan within the surrounding group, making a human footprint of our operations,” stated a voiceover narrating the faux promotional video, a spoof on the idea of “carbon footprint,” a tally of every particular person’s vitality use. 

“Life offsets” poke enjoyable at scientifically problematic “carbon offsets,” which permit firms to emit greenhouse gases as regular so long as they “trade” that exercise by – as an example – planting timber that can soak up and retailer carbon dioxide.

To Modest Proposals, the satirical equal of “carbon offsets” could be “life offsets” bought by Enterprise International to increase wealthy peoples’ lives, Haugen stated.

Behind the humor is a critical level.

“Life Offsets could also be satirical, however they precisely specific Enterprise International’s complete disregard for residents’ lives,” stated Haugen. “They’re continuously emitting pollution recognized to trigger most cancers, heart problems, and beginning defects. They’ve violated their air air pollution permits hundreds of occasions. They’re a hazard to the folks of Louisiana.”

Modest Proposals is understood for its satirical campaigns. In 2020, they labored with the “non-violent civil disobedience” activist group Extinction Rebel to ship an April Idiot’s Day announcement that appeared to come back from Google CEO Sundar Pichai: “At this time Google Stops Funding Local weather Change Deniers.”

And in Superior, Wis., Modest Proposals despatched postcards from a faux public security initiative for Cenovus Superior Refinery known as “Husky Pals,” named for Husky, an vitality firm acquired by Cenovus. This trickster marketing campaign was designed to convey consideration to the risks of hydrogen fluoride, after an announcement that the refinery would rebuild following a 2018 explosion. 

In Louisiana, Modest Proposals desires its methods to convey consideration to Enterprise International’s repeated violations of air-quality permits, its displacement of Plaquemines Parish residents, and the stress it positioned on federal regulators to construct Calcasieu Go 2, a venture that can produce the equal emissions of greater than 50 coal-fired energy crops. 

On high of these threats, protest, within the standard methods, could be troublesome in some elements of Louisiana, the place law-enforcement officers could also be extra liable to “shut down” a protest than to permit the expression of free speech.

“Louisiana has so many draconian protest legal guidelines that activists need to get inventive with how they draw consideration to injustice,” stated Modest Proposals member Sasha Brown. “Utilizing humor and satire is a good way to not solely get consideration but additionally to shine a distinct mild on vital points.”

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