Since last year, groups of climate activists have been gathering to push governments towards an immediate change. Some of these groups, such as Just Stop Oil and Ultima Generazione, have been using disruptive protests to prove their point. Members of such organizations glued themselves to famous art pieces or caused traffic obstruction, while claiming that our future is at stake and governments need to act.
Just Stop Oil is a British nonprofit group, formed by environmental activists, that was founded in February 2022. It is structured into autonomous blocks that cooperate, but do not have any formal leader. As suggested from the name, the group aims at interrupting any kind of agreement or consent to either produce or exploit fossil fuels in the United Kingdom. The environmentally-friendly alternatives that these people support rely, for instance, on investment in fields like renewable energy, as well as promoting thermal insulation for homes, so as to avoid domestic energy waste.
The first major protest arranged by the group took place in November 2022. These activists blocked sections of the M25, London’s orbital road, during a busy Monday morning. At least 35 people were arrested by the Met Police in response to the disruption. They also targeted important sporting events, such as the Wimbledon tennis championship, and cultural performances, like the musical Les Misérables. However, their main source of noticeability comes from the damage they caused to mainstream art pieces: throwing tomato soup over the Sunflowers painting from Vincent Van Gogh, smashing the glass protecting the Rokeby Venus painting, from Diego Velazquez or gluing themselves to the Girl with a Pearl Earring piece from Vermeer.
These kinds of demonstrations have been a source of inspiration for other environmental groups, such as the UK-founded Extinction Rebellion and the Italian Ultima Generazione. The former is asking the government to speak the truth about the urgency for a change and to act quickly. The latter, founded in 2021 as a subgroup of Extinction Rebellion that later became independent, claims to be a non-violent movement of civil disobedience.
If Just Stop Oil seems to channel its actions towards pastoral paintings, Ultima Generazione has mainly favored sculptures by Botticelli and Boccioni. The Primavera of Botticelli was targeted during the summer of 2022, followed by the demonstration that took place at the Museo del Novecento in Milan, where a small group of activists glued themselves to the Forme Uniche della Continuità nello Spazio sculpture. “There won’t be art in a collapsing planet” claimed one of the arrested members of the group. The request that the activists made through this action was for the culture sector to side with them and pressure the government to interrupt fossil fuels’ usage.
These organizations have claimed to be looking for a way to shake audiences. Clearly, throwing tomato soup will not change the water levels, but it’s a channel to communicate that the value of art will not matter in a future where the earth is going to collapse due to the ongoing climate crisis. Is their modus operandi efficient though?
In the UK, Starmer, the Labor Party leader, emphasized his disagreement towards Just Stop Oil’s use of disruptive public protests. He stated that there are people from all political factions that want climate policy to become an ideological identity issue. “I think it’s arrogant of those gluing themselves to the road to think they’re the only people that have got the answer to this. They haven’t got the answer” claimed the Leader on LBC. He also added that he is absolutely in favor of new sources of investment flowing towards renewable energy, while still disagreeing with the acts of vandalism that the Just Stop Oil group organized.
Indeed, their modus operandi might prove to be counterproductive after all. The idea that lies behind these actions, even if consistent with the ongoing global issues, could be considered, at this point, as a further reason for governments to distance themselves from the necessity to take a stand with regards to environmental change problems. As Starmer specified, it is important not to make climate change an ideological identity issue. Moreover, considering the kind of response that this type of civil resistance has encountered, Just Stop Oil and all the other groups might not have pressured the government in an efficient way.
Hi, it’s Zoe Di Lieto here, student from the Economic and social sciences course here in Bocconi. I grew up in Rome and I’ve only recently moved to Milan for university. I’m a passionate reader, I love to travel and I like to play a little guitar occasionally. I’d say the fields I’m most interested in are literature, philosophy and cultures, especially how different cultural background affects social behavior.