‘Increasingly Desperate Measures’: Climate protesters target another priceless artwork

Confrontational climate protests also erupted in France on Thursday, as activists invaded a Climate Finance Day meeting at the former French stock exchange to protest French bank BNP Paribas’ investments in the fossil fuel industry. Outside the building, activists threw smoke bombs and poured black paint on the historic building’s steps, symbolizing oil and gas — two fossil fuels the bank is accused of financing.

They are the latest in a series of high-profile climate protests that took place around the world in October and made headlines around the world. But how effective are they?

The Vermeer painting is one of many artworks targeted: In the UK, climate protesters threw tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”. In Germany, Claude Monet’s “Haystacks” were hit with mashed potatoes. In Melbourne, two members of Extinction Rebellion held their hands to the glass covering a painting by Pablo Picasso.

The auto industry was also singled out: nine Science Rebellion members taped their hands to the floor at Volkswagen’s Autostadt museum in Germany, while Extinction Rebellion members taped themselves to Ferraris on display at the Paris Motor Show.

In New York, climate activists marked the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Sandy with days of protests ranging from street blockades to loud protests outside the home of Scott Nuttall, co-CEO of KKR, a private equity giant that owns dozens of fossil fuel companies owns.

Ending the use of fossil fuels is at the heart of demands from many protesters. However, many have also expressed general concerns about environmental degradation.

“How do you feel when you see something beautiful and priceless seemingly destroyed before your eyes?” asked a protester about the painting known as the “Mona Lisa of the Netherlands” in a video posted online Thursday at the Netherlands museum. “It’s the same feeling when you see the planet being destroyed.”

“The Questions That Count”

The timing of these protests is no coincidence. “We’re seeing all this action right now because COP27 is starting very soon in Egypt,” says Dr. Oscar Berglund, Lecturer in Climate Activism at Bristol University. “It’s about applying pressure and maintaining it [the climate] in the media.”

The intensification of climate change means that climate activists are particularly mobilized to take such action. “We can’t just change our minds about whether we want climate change in 10 years or not,” says Mathew Humphrey, professor of political theory at the University of Nottingham. “They protest against potentially catastrophic, global and irreversible changes. That gives her cause a special moral impetus.”

But there is still a risk that raising awareness with such confrontational protests will backfire. Motorists running errands or driving to work, for example, can easily be irritated by roadblocks rather than sympathizing with protesters, and attacks on beloved works of art in particular are divided. “The potential downside is the alienation of public opinion,” says Humphrey.

But there can also be benefits to a cause when protesters can garner enough attention with a stunt. “There’s no connection between throwing tomato soup on a painting and wanting to stop new oil and gas licenses,” says Berglund. “It’s about the attention you get with it and what that potential is used for.”

There is evidence that such high-profile protests are indeed raising public awareness of climate change in general. And spreading social media can also help spread the message further. After the attack on Van Gogh’s painting, a video showing protester Phoebe Plummer explaining why she got involved has been viewed 7.9 million times. “We get the conversations going so we can ask the important questions,” she says.

Another video of protester Lora Johnson being carried away by police as she announces she took part in a blockade of London’s Waterloo Bridge “for her son” has been viewed 11.5 million times.

“Drive social change”

The rise of radical, attention-grabbing climate protests comes at a time of rising climate anxiety. In 2021, a global survey of thousands of 16-25 year olds found that 95% were concerned about climate change and almost 30% were “extremely concerned”.

Though fear may be widespread, protesters tend to be a minority. Studies show that around 10% of people are willing to engage in nonviolent protest, and in reality fewer do so. Younger generations are most likely to support confrontational protests, but other age groups are also affected. The demonstrators holding their hands to the Picasso were in their 40s and 50s.

Scientists Get Involved Too – Scientist Rebellion is a group of scientists and academics who engage in civil disobedience and call on their peers to do the same. One of them is dr. Stuart Capstick, Associate Director of the Center for Climate Change and Social Transformations at Cardiff University. “Nonviolent civil disobedience is a last resort for me,” he says, “but something I hope can help decision-makers be more ambitious. The unfolding climate crisis is not being treated with the seriousness it deserves.”

In October, Capstick and four other scientists were acquitted by British courts of £2,000 in damages for pasting scientific papers, using chalk spray and pasting themselves on the windows of Britain’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to draw attention to the danger , which emanated from them new oil and gas exploration.

For Capstick, the court process was “stressful and time-consuming,” he says. “But I never doubted that our group of scientists’ protest was correct.”

Many activists face arrest, jail time, and permanent criminal records for their actions—and the stakes are mounting. More than 400 climate scientists have signed an open letter expressing their “great concern about increasing criminalization and targeted attacks on climate protesters around the world.”

At the same time, the climate crisis is getting worse. A UN climate report released on Thursday found that governments around the world are “falling far short of emissions targets” “without a credible path to get there [the stated climate goal of] 1.5°C on the spot”. In the face of a lack of government action, Humphrey says, “If you are a political ‘outsider’, the only way to raise public awareness of your political cause is to engage in forms of protest and direct action. ”

Capstick recognizes that protests are just “part of the process”. Deeper changes to reduce emissions, he says, “need action and pressure sustained over time and enabled at all levels of society.”

Berglund agrees that militant climate protest alone has a limited role to play. “Climate change is closely linked to capitalism,” he says. “We know we need to move towards sustainable societies while tackling severe inequalities. You need a broad movement to really shake up the political system.”

In the meantime, it is likely that militant climate protests will increase ahead of the Cop27 climate summit on November 6th and beyond.

“Over the decades, climate change will affect more and more people,” says Berglund. “And we’re going to see people take increasingly desperate measures.”