“The Earth Without Art is Just Eh”

Imagine you’re at London’s National Gallery admiring your favorite painting, Fifteen Sunflowers by Van Gogh.  You turn away for a second and when you turn back, the painting has been covered with tomato soup. 

Climate activist group, Just Stop Oil, has been staging these scenes throughout Europe whether it’s throwing soup at paintings or gluing themselves to other pieces of art. Many Just Stop Oil activists compare their acts of destruction towards these paintings to the acts of destruction governments are committing by not prioritizing the climate crisis. They also aim to call out people for valuing art but failing to realize that there’s no point in art if there’s no planet to enjoy it. These performances have been echoed by other groups as well. 

Two members of a German activist group even glued themselves to a dinosaur display. They held signs that called out governments for not handling the climate change crisis while our fate rests in their hands. The paintings all have protective coverings and have all been able to be restored, but without immediate action, the quality of our planet may never be restored.

According to Axios, the European Continent is quickly warming up leading to natural disasters like heat waves, droughts, and even floods. The EU plans to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions but even still, without the rest of the planet on board, Europe and the rest of the world will continue to face global warming. The UN even warns that by the year 2050, many glaciers will disappear and there’s no reversing this. But hopefully with governments working towards lowering greenhouse gas emissions, other inevitable disasters due to climate change can be delayed.

These protesters from Just Stop Oil are not only concerned with climate change, but also the cost of fuel. The climate activists from the Fifteen Sunflowers stunt claimed that hungry families can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup. In the US, the cost of oil is projected to soar this winter. This will greatly affect lower income families who will have to choose between staying warm this season or being able to eat. Just Stop Oil’s goal is to not only to create equity for low income families who can’t afford oil for heat but to get the UK government to take charge on this issue today, not tomorrow.

However, many climate activists are divided on this issue, is it counterproductive or is it spreading awareness? Some climate activists believe these stunts are giving a bad face to climate advocacy making it easier for the public to criticize climate activists. Just Stop Oil spoke up to reassure people that the artworks are left damage-free and the staff was completely out of harm’s way in an effort to show that this was simply a stunt and there was no harm done. 

Many people who would defend climate action agree. In order to get those who are not motivated to act on board with this issue, some climate activists think a more moderate approach is the way to go. Just Stop Oil has also spoken up about this and claimed basically that all media is good media and now their cause is getting more attention than ever. 

It prompts the question: what lengths will people go to to defeat the climate crisis?