If there is anything Gen Z’ers know best, it is how to cope with our existential dread through memes. It can feel paralyzing and depressing to grow up in a world riddled with racial injustice, domestic terrorism, violence, and climate change. Especially now in a pandemic, it can be hard to find creative ways to make a difference or even feel motivated to step onto the streets and demand action, accountability and change.
Throughout the pandemic, the trend of social media activism has skyrocketed. Some people find freedom in the new virtual setting, while some argue that activism over the internet is unproductive and performative. In a pandemic, virtual activism has given young people the space to spark debate, organize and educate, and to demand accountability from powerful interests.
Enter Greentrolling.
What in the world is Greentrolling? The best way that I can describe, it’s an internet phenomenon similar to trolling but directed towards Big Oil: the largest fossil fuel companies in the world.
Big Oil is Gaslighting Us
You might recognize the names of the most powerful and potent players: Chevron, Exxon, BP, Shell and Gazprom. They are at the top of the world’s biggest polluters list. Between 1965 and 2018, the top 20 fossil fuel companies contributed 35 percent of all fossil fuel and cement emissions worldwide, according to a study from the Climate Accountability Institute. As a collective, these top 20 companies have contributed more than 493 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and methane emissions since 1965.
Meanwhile, Big Oil continues to push the narrative that the individual has the power to reverse climate change. We are told that if we buy electric cars, travel less, use metal straws, and stay away from single use plastics, we can decrease our “carbon footprint,” thus making progress towards reversing climate change. To tell you the truth, the “carbon footprint” dialogue is bogus. It started as a PR campaign from BP in 2004 when they unveiled their carbon footprint calculator. “Drive down your carbon footprint,” BP says on their website.
By turning the blame of climate change onto individuals, it almost makes one forget that fossil fuel companies are still drilling and burning oil, gas and coal. Their emission rates are incomparable to those of individuals. It is a frustrating and belittling concept to wrap your head around. Which is why in the past year, I have turned to greentrolling.
Punch Up
Greentrolling lets me laugh in the face of Big Oil. Punch up rather than punch down. Some examples of a good greentroll are: memes; lengthy tweets calling out Exxon on it’s human rights abuses or the various environmental disasters it has caused; a snappy “shut up,” “fuck you,” or “just shut down.” Add an emoji or gif for the razzle dazzle.
The act of greentrolling allows one to direct their strong feelings towards the polluters and their social media accounts. Any time you see a social media post from a fossil fuel company – especially posts that emphasize the company’s goal for “net-zero emissions” or “environmental sustainability” – hone in on that eco-rage and let it loose.
An alternate way to greentroll is by reminding a company of the destruction they have caused to all life and our natural world. Go to Google and search any fossil fuel company’s name with “oil spill” or “pipeline leak” and you are bound to find an endless history of ecological, societal and public health disasters caused by Big Oil. Then, take a screenshot of an article, and send it to the culprit, “This you?”
I feel empowered when I talk shit to Big Oil on social media. The purpose of fossil fuel presence on social media is to create an image of the industry that looks as if it is part of the solution, when in reality it is the problem. Greentrolling reverses the hierarchy and gives the individual some power to alter the online image of fossil fuel companies.
Origins
It is crucial to know that greentrolling was started by a Black woman, Mary Heglar, a climate writer and co-host of the climate podcast Hot Take. I was an intern at Hot Take last summer and fall, and it was there that I was first exposed to greentrolling. I remember one day Heglar announced that Exxon Mobil had blocked her account on Twitter. The laugh I let out after seeing that announcement was unforgettable. It was like a cross between the laugh of a villain at the start of their origin story, and the laugh of a giddy child.
In some ways it felt like a victory for me even though I wasn’t the one who was blocked. Heglar’s relentless trolling was heard by someone Exxon, so much so that her account was deserving of a ‘block.’ Now that folks, is the smell of victory.
“Taken through that lens, you begin to see that you’re not powerless at all. Far from it. The world is not falling apart in front of our eyes so much as it is falling into our hands. What will happen if we’re brave enough to catch the falling pieces?” Heglar wrote in an essay “We Can’t Tackle Climate Change Without You” for Wired.
And with that, I invite you to greentroll. Send a snarky comment to BP as if your ex just texted you “wyd?” Pull that piping hot meme out of your camera roll and hit ‘send tweet’ under the American Petroleum Institute twitter page. Let ‘em have it.
Here is a helpful guide on how to greentroll created by Future Earth, a climate club, in partnership with Hot Take.
