Thread by @PKashwan

Not sure where to start this thread, but @Trevornoah
& @TheDailyShow have made a serious error of judgment in giving platform to a known charlatan. As others have pointed, we wish they'd spent more time researching this gentleman before having him on. 1/n

https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1501383435914465288

We've been thinking about this for long: "Scientists, corporations, mystics, and movie stars have convinced policymakers around the world that a massive campaign to plant trees should be an essential element of global climate policy." #TrillionTrees #Restoration 2/n

The quote above is from a Bioscience article that several of us, led by @ForrestFleisch1, wrote sometime back. "Pitfalls of Tree Planting Show Why We Need People-Centered Natural Climate Solutions" (Freely available pre-print: researchgate.net/publication/34…) 3/n academic.oup.com/bioscience/art…

Remember, tree planting is not "ecological restoration". Here is a popular essay that @justcalma wrote for the @Verge over two years back: "Planting 1 trillion trees might not actually be a good idea" #Restoration 4/n theverge.com/2020/1/31/2111…

Another well-researched article was from @Nidhi_Adlakha writing for @the_hindu "Enough with the token tree planting" 5/n thehindu.com/sci-tech/energ…

If you read the article, you'd know that the journalist anticipated being "attacked" for writing this. And, she was viciously attacked by the (right wing) trolls that are a permanent presence on the Indian twitter. Inviting charlatans = open invitation to the trolls #trolls 6/n

If you'd like to do a deep-dive into how some of these campaigns come about and are run, I recommend resources complied by @ESG_India “Interrogating ‘Cauvery Calling’: Issues Of Ecologies, Cultures & Livelihoods” 7/n esgindia.org/new/campaigns/…

Now, you must wonder how did this so-called Sadhguru move on from tree-planting and 'Cauvery Calling' campaign to the 'Save Soil' campaign. As a friend in the know of things remarked privately: "It's purely a communications campaign."

But @TheDailyShow fell for it! 8/n

Here is the crux of this all - there is a long history of environmental campaigns tagged to exotic looking characters. If you are too young to know about the Crying Indian, if you must read this report @FinisDunaway wrote for the @chicagotribune 9/n chicagotribune.com/opinion/commen…

Don't believe @Trevornoah/@TheDailyShow is part of similar efforts. They've fallen prey to a sophisticated greenwashing campaign, run by corporations that're using the tactics of climate delay, 'coz climate denialism doesn't work anymore. #ClimateJustice #ClimateActionNow 10/10