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Hubris and Nemesis
By Phil Bilbrough
As a part time environmentalist I have begun to see a new side of social media – one that niggles and hurts me, yet like a sadomasochist it makes me love it more.
How could I have missed the can-do nature of social media? Social media is written about a hundred times a day in 200 word blogs. Yet strangely I thought that the general public wouldn’t use it for marketing, they would ring a digital strategist like me up. They didn’t call me and they use social media to great affect.
I’ve told clients of the public relations opportunities of social media and I believe that advice, yet now I’m on the receiving end. Its awkward, irritating and fun. I’m not doing it and my adversaries are. My nemesis. Why I never saw that coming – could only be hubris. Anyone can use social networks (that’s their idea). You don’t need to call yourself a digital strategist you just need to be quick off the mark.
I work part time for Forest & Bird (a New Zealand not-for-profit independent conservation society). It is an important society for New Zealand, yet a lot of people really hate you. This is not a personal thing (or it might be) and many of our critics are also passionate about the environment. But their climate changes if we appear to be threatening their lifestyle or taking an approach to conservation that they don’t like. Forest & Bird is a national organisation – there is a lot of land, sea, flora and fauna to protect – its easy to upset someone somewhere. And Forest & Bird supports 1080.
And 1080 upsets a lot of people. This is a poison that DOC and regional councils drop into native forests (and on islands with native forests) to kill possums, rats and stoats. Its effective. Both cost effective (to reach the tens of thousands of inaccessible hectares) and killing effective. Forest & Bird believes that 1080 has saved forests and many birds from nasty cute fluffy animals.
But poison is poison. Many think that it kills birds – and it can – although it is brightly coloured and has cinnamon smell which is meant to put them off eating it. Also, 1080 is dropped from the sky and during that drop it can and has spilled onto private property and it has probably killed animals on some of those properties. Also if you are a hunter 1080 could kill your prey.
This issue is ideal for social media sites. Emotive, both local and national – lots of anecdotes, scientists vs the public, Government vs the people, small fluffy animals getting killed all great elements for sides and trench warfare.
A person told me of seeing 1080 pellets while tramping, on the forest floor and not hearing any birds at all. She equated the silence with 1080 – that is 1080 killed the birds. There may have been no birds, but there were possums. Possums raid nests to eat bird eggs, (they also eat trees) and because there are possums then 1080 gets dropped.
The anti-1080 lobby are all over social media sites and sometime before the pro-1080 group. They stole the march and it has been successful for them. I mean they didn’t talk about social media (like me) they went and did it. All power to them, and they have had great results, the Kaikoura City Council, Taupo City Council and local community boards in the Coromandel are banning 1080. Stunningly stupid decisions. Possibly those councils think that they can manage the forest pest problem now that 1080 has done the hard work, and drops occur every 5 years and that’s a loooonnggg time in politics – ban it this year bring back it in 5 and no-one will know.
Kerre Woodham is anti-1080 as well, and1080 issues are never long out the news media.
Social media sites are the virtual 1080 battle ground. A DOC person has been accused of allegedly editing a Wikipedia page that referenced 1080.
I don’t live anywhere near a 1080 drop (as far as I know) I do live near the town belt in Wellington where poisoning for pest destruction is common place (and a poison much more toxic than 1080), it’s just that this kind of poisoning is under the radar and doesn’t drop out of the sky – that much (a key point). For those living near a 1080 drop they really may have had an unpleasant experience of 1080, and it will kill pets and livestock if they eat it.
Pro-1080 people are fighting back on social media and news sites. The pro lobby are generally scientists and I suspect, that they may have waited for results from studies of the effectiveness of the pest destruction strategies. I mean, a bird population in a specific area wouldn’t bounce back immediately after a 1080 drop. And now that they have the ammo they are fighting back.
So I am pro-1080, but let’s move on. My advice too you is to kill possums, rats and stoats, don’t put stoats down your pants, and if you have something to say don’t hang about, get it on Youtube.
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Phil Bilbrough is a freelance online advertising specialist who is blogging on the subject for Scoop at Advertising.scoop.co.nz. He can be contacted at phil@bilbrough.com.
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Fair enough Phil, but you obviously haven’t spent much time in the bush – where 1080 drops are undertaken, and more importantly, where they have never been undertaken.
However, all these fancy words don’t change the facts – that there isn’t a single, credible, scientific study that shows at net population benefit to any native species through the use of 1080 poison, not one!
Do you honestly believe that the users can drop enough poison into New Zealand forests, every year, to kill 20 million people, and only kill possums and rats? There are over 50,000 multi cellular organisms living in our forests. How many of them have been studied into the effects that 1080 has upon them? You can practically count the ones that have, on two hands. 1080 kills everything that breaths air, including insects – the forests decomposers.
The science supporting 1080 is funded by a bureaucracy, it is pre-determined, and of low quality. This is provable, and will be proven before long, as I believe there will eventually be an enquiry into this massive deception. Not only will New Zealand’s reputation be challenged, but the science industry supporting 1080. The truth is in the forest, where the drops take place, and where they don’t take place.
Thanks for commenting Clyde.
Hey Clyde,
Please post any of your latest material that are on any of the social networking sites. Also, you commented very quickly, can I ask if you are tracking posts/blogs about 1080?
Phil
I agree with you Phil. I have spent a lot of time in New Zealand bush and I am appalled at the lack of bird-life. When you compare the descriptions of the cacophony that greeted the first visitors to these shores with the silence that hangs over the bush now you gain an appreciation for that which we have lost – none of it due to 1080. I have been in “poisoned” bush and there is no observable difference between it and the “pristine” bush.
At home I maintain a very heavy poisoning program; the results have been spectacular. Geckos, and skinks abound; there are large populations of quail (Brown and Californian) – admittedly not native, but show the effectiveness of poison. Fantails exist in profusion; tui, wood pigeon, and kaka are all common, and I can assure you that the poison doesn’t affect the insects – the garden testifies to that.
Poison isn’t the perfect solution (I would rather not use it), but until we discover another way to control the pests that infest our bush we are stuck with it.
I am mystified by the fact that people get very upset about 1080 but not about cholecalciferol. It seems that people can understand that an animal is in pain when it has convulsions, but if it dies in slow agony, with its internal organs calcifying and haemorrhaging, they don’t realize that there is pain involved. Don’t they realize that it would be agonizing if every breath, or intestinal contraction, broke calcified tissue? Likewise, although brodifacoum can lead to a ‘gentle’ death by intestinal blood loss, it very often leads to pulmonary haemorrhages, hemarthroses, haemopericaridum and other forms of haemorrhage that are known to be extremely painful in humans. As a Board-certified toxicologist (with both the American Board of Toxicology and the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology), I can state with assurance that none of these chemicals cause a ‘gentle’ or comfortable death. Most poisonings don’t. Given the choice of suicide by 1080 or cholecalciferol, I’d pick the 1080, because at least it is quick.
The 1080 debate is tainted by ill-informed and emotive reporting by the media. A few weeks ago there was an item on television about some people whose dog died with signs of 1080 poisoning after a nearby reserve was treated. Allegedly they got the dog to the vet but were told there was nothing that could be done. This item raised more questions that it answered. Firstly, how did the dog get the 1080 if not by wandering? By law, dogs are supposed to be under the owner’s control at all times so if the owners let the dog wander, shame on them, they have noone but themselves to blame for their dog’s death. Why did the vets say there was no treatment when there are antidotes for 1080? Did the dog die before they could be used, or did the vets not want to bother treating the dog? Was a postmortem exam done to confirm the diagnosis? There are other causes of fits in dogs. ‘Post hoc ergo propter hoc’ is a logical fallacy.
I recently drove “The Forgotten Highway” for the first time in many years. The extent of possum damage to the crowns of the trees is appalling.
Thanks for your comments Ken.
Not relevant to the 1080 discussion but this circulated today from DOC, http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/birds/land-birds/nz-falcon-karearea/threats/video-of-cat-attack/
Thanks for commenting Ken
Not a 1080 link but a recent video link circulating from DOC now, http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/birds/land-birds/nz-falcon-karearea/threats/video-of-cat-attack/
1080 is not a pleasant, or quick death. That is of course, if you call up to several weeks to die, (for some species of birds) slow.There is no antidote, it has no smell or taste.
Rosalind, if I may offer you the opportunity to get informed, I will post you a copy of Poisoning Paradise, at no cost, if you would agree to watch it. It is a scientific, and factual account of the use of 1080 in New Zealand. No catch, you don’t even need to communicate with me, appart from supplying me your postal address. My email address is thegrafboys@xtra.co.nz There is also some clips available to watch on our website http://www.thegrafboys.org, if you would rather.
Phil, sorry not to reply sooner. No, I don’t follow the blog sites – but I do do searches from time to time, and came on to your story.
Phil, as mentioned above, I would be delighted to send you a copy of PP too, if you would agree to watch it.
Let me know. All the best. Clyde Graf.
You seem to be focusing on the technology and the tools, not the communication strategy.
Being “first” has very little to do with social media. Social media “tools” are easy. Two way communication strategies are a lot more challenging.
Thanks for the comment. Yeah I am focusing on the technology. I don’t think that either side of the 1080 argument have a communication strategy for social media. Yet I expect/know that both sides of this argument are organised and strategic – just not in social media. I think that Clyde and his brother’s development and distribution through YouTube of their documentary Poison Paradise had a very big impact on the 1080 discussion. So, yes I think being first to advocate an issue on social media sites is important.
Saw Clyde’s film, on Ziln,
http://www.ziln.co.nz/program_detail.php?program_id=561&channel_id=122