Don’t expect them to actually Do Anything, like traveling to Alaska, since most do not even live their, nor give up their own use of fossil fuels
#StopWillow is taking TikTok by storm. Can it actually work?
When Elise Joshi posted a TikTok video about the Alaska oil drilling project known as Willow in early February, she didn’t have high hopes it would go viral.
Joshi, 20, posts often about climate issues on TikTok for the account Gen-Z for Change, as well as her personal account. She’s well aware “climate doesn’t trend very often,” as she told CNN. But Joshi’s video about Willow was very different. It took just a few days to accumulate more than 100,000 views, eventually surpassing 300,000.
She was super excited to post this, despite living in Berkeley, California. And taking lots of fossil fueled trips, like all the way to D.C., (I bet not on the train), where she shows herself traveling in a fossil fueled vehicle, despite another that says “f*ck fossil fuels” and another advocating for a car free Berkeley.
Biden’s administration is expected to finalize its decision on whether to approve the ConocoPhillips Willow Project next week. If it goes through, the decadeslong oil drilling venture on the North Slope of Alaska would create thousands of jobs and establish a new source of revenue for the region.
But it would also generate enough oil to release 9.2 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon pollution a year, by the federal government’s estimate, about the same as adding 2 million cars to the roads.
So, all these kiddies and their hashtags want to take away thousands of jobs, tons of revenue for Alaskans, all while not giving up their own use of fossil fuels and 1st World carbon footprints.
While the project has both supporters and opponents in its home state, it has become a lightning rod on social media. Over the past week, TikTok users in particular have galvanized around halting the project, with a staggering number of people watching and posting on the topic.
Videos with anti-Willow hashtags like #StopWillow have amassed close to 50 million views in the last week, and on Friday, Willow was on the site’s top 10 trending list, behind celebrities Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber. Much of the spike in interest has come in the last week alone.
The same kiddies are also taking fossil fueled travel to make their videos and take their selfies. BTW, since TikTok is pretty much run by the Chinese government, do the youts know how many coal plants China has and is building?
As for whether the surge of online activism will work to halt or delay the project, TikTok creators themselves aren’t sure. If the project is approved, several told CNN they will continue to post about the project – detailing ways their followers can support Indigenous groups in Alaska and keep speaking out about Willow.
“We’re coordinated enough to do whatever makes the most sense,” Haraus told CNN. “If that’s in-person protesting, then we will happily do that. This is an issue that we will be voting on and will remember at the ballot box.
“Millions of people are waiting for the White House’s move.”
But, almost none of them are willing to make changes in their own lives.
Not to mention the coal being burned to power those server farms in the USA and Singapore. All for an app that has no real benefit to anyone other than advertisers and propagandists.