No student is safe from vicious tweets by environmental installation
Last week, United States president Donald Trump issued a controversial gag order on several federal departments, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Parks Service. Within hours, the Internet was flooded with unofficial social media accounts lobbing facts at the new Commander-in-Chief.
The Twitter account @RogueNASA bombarded its followers with evidence of climate change, while the staff of parks, including Mount Rainier and the Badlands, pointed to a range of environmental concerns from overfishing to soil runoff.
Not to be left out, the University of Ottawa’s own Living Wall has taken to Twitter to attack issues that hit a lot closer to home. Although climate change and ocean acidification threaten all of human existence, the verdant fixture wants to bring attention to some less grandiose elements of environmental preservation.
“Today, the number of Bridgehead coffee cups littering the Parliament Hill bus stop is higher than at any time in the last 150 years,” tweeted @RogueLivingWall.
But this crusade didn’t end with stray coffee cups. The account has also shredded Ottawa residents who cut through public gardens, stating that “dozens of pretty flowers have been trampled by those with a reckless disregard for the environment.”
The Twitter tirade continued throughout the week, with the Living Wall’s posts claiming “over 70 per cent of Ontario residents can’t remember which numbered plastics are recyclable” and that “you probably used too much paper towel cleaning up that spilt water.”
As of the date of this publication, the owner of the account has not been identified. However most theories point to a particularly zealous member of the Faculty of Social Sciences.
The online protests don’t stop at environmental damage. The Living Wall’s Twitter account inspired a number of offshoots across campus and beyond, covering a range of the city’s most minutely frustrating issues.
@RogueMonDeLaFrancophone reminds its followers that “claiming to speak French in order to impress women in Ottawa just makes you look dumb.”
It later stirred up controversy last week with the assertion that “over 60 per cent of English speakers who move to Gatineau for cheaper rent get irrationally angry when everyone greets them in French.”
@RogueRideauCanal attacked Ottawa mayor Jim Watson for failing to provide sufficient access to skates, citing the outrageous rental fees visitors are expected to pay.
“In 2017, the hourly rental price for skates is $13. That’s probably enough money for like four coffees.”
Meanwhile @RogueSITE has only posted one tweet since the account was opened last week. It simply reads: “Blackboard still exists.”
