Extreme Environmentalists

Extreme environmentalism

Climate change protesters target famous pieces of art to bring attention to their cause

Malak Samara samarmal000@hsestudents.org

Climate change is a persistent problem increasing every year that goes by without reducing carbon emissions. According to NORA, Earth’s temperature has risen by 0.14 degrees Fahrenheit every decade since 1880. However, ever since 1981, Earth’s rising temperature every decade has more than doubled to 0.32 degrees Fahrenheit. Environmentalists have been trying to push for the prioritization of combating global warming, but at the rate the world has been going thus far, the negative e ects on the environment will be irreversible. is has caused a new form of environmental protests that include targeting famous pieces of artwork in order to bring attention to how detrimental climate change will be if it continues growing at the caliber it has been. “I think [taking care of the environment] is important because [climate change] is going to a ect and impact all of us sooner or later,” sophomore Claire Riebe said. “It already is impacting [us]. Right now it’s our only shot, so we need to just take immediate action and we need to make real signi cant changes now.” Climate change can raise many disagreements, especially from a political standpoint. A prime example of this is how President Joe Biden signed the U.S. back into the Paris agreement a er former President Donald Trump had pulled the country out. However, it is usually universally agreed that the planet needs to be maintained because otherwise there will be no future. “ is is our home,” environmental club sponsor Daniel Mach said. “We need to be better stewards of the only place in the universe that can sustain life. ere is no other place that we can go. We have an obligation to care for what we have and make it better for future generations.” While politics play a big part in the progression of global warming, there are still precautions everyday people can take to contribute to taking care of the Earth. Riebe emphasized reducing carbon footprints by composting or recycling as one way to do so. Mach on the other hand believes voting people into o ce who will use their power to make positive changes to the environment is a vital step Americans can take toward the right path. “[In our country] we have this right to vote for people who can actually make these changes happen,” junior Andres Maldonado said. “As an individual, the best you can do is work as a team with others to prop up these carbonneutral companies or convince companies that they need to be car carbon-neutral. [Also] vote for governments that will be carbon neutral.” What most people nd concerning about the rise in global warming is that even with current-day inventions and progressions, the Earth is in a worse state than it was 200 years ago. Mach believes signi cant steps towards reducing climate change have not been put to fruition due to the hardships that people will endure, such as changing their lifestyles in order to achieve this. Even though climate change is increasingly getting worse, there have been attempts to counteract the negative impacts it has had. One of the more recent examples is the Conference of Parties (COP) 27. It is an annual meeting between 197 countries a part of the United Nations to discuss climate change and negotiate how much money each country should contribute to help decrease collective carbon emissions. COP27 was held in Egypt, starting on Nov. 6 and ending on Nov. 20. “I’m really glad that we’re getting together as a world,”

Maldonado said. “We can only really combat climate change with unity. [ ere are] bigger and smaller countries and they all have di erent e ects on the climate. If we all each have our individual goals, if we don’t work together as one, we’re not really going to get anywhere.” Another way people are combating climate change is by bringing more awareness to the negative e ects it will have on the future. is is typically achieved through protesting and posting on social media. ere have been debates, however, on what is the best way to e ectively protest. “[ e best way to protest is by] protesting in the streets and getting large amounts of people [to be involved],” Riebe said. “Keeping the focus on climate change and not trying to do something extravagant, is what’s going to get people to listen to the message most.” A new form of protesting, involving artwork, has been recently trending, especially on social media. Environmentalists glue themselves to di erent pieces of famous artwork or obstruct them in some way. One of the more popular examples of protesting this way involved two environmentalists who threw tomato soup on Van Gogh’s painting and then proceeded to glue themselves to the wall and chant about how the environment needed to be prioritized. A more recent example includes environmentalists in Austria defacing artist Gustav Klimt’s ‘Death and Life’ painting in a Vienna museum. ere have been mixed opinions about protesting against climate change by targeting art. Some have condemned the new method because they feel like it does not achieve the overall message of combating climate change. Others have recognized that it does bring attention to the problem. Since people value important pieces of artwork, the obstruction of it would cause people to look into what happened and nd out it was a result of a cry for help for the environment. “I understand that yes, it gets people talking and it gets attention,” Riebe said. “At the same time, I wonder if it’s a double sword. On one hand, you have people who become aware of the problem, but on the other hand, it overshadows the true message and the true purpose of that form of protest.” Riebe also emphasized that those who did pay attention to the environmentalists a liated their purpose and cause with targeting important pieces of art and history. is caused more people to de ect the need to combat climate change. Mach believes that throwing tomato soup or gluing themselves to the walls is only adding to the pollution of the world, which comes in direct con ict with what they are protesting against. While a lot of people are against destroying artworks in order to send a message about the negative impacts of climate change, it is recognizable that the protesters feel as though doing so is their last resort. Maldonado believes that environmentalists needing to bring attention to as big of an issue as climate change is a problem itself and goes to show that they are utilizing whatever method they can. Riebe added to this acknowledging that in previous eras, protests that went to the extreme did work. “I think historically, extremes work,” Riebe said. “For example the sit-ins during the civil rights era. Sometimes extremes can really work and get national media attention like the video [of the activists throwing tomato soup] got. But I think it’s what happens with that attention, that is what’s important.” Art is typically used as an expression of the environment and has environmentalist messages ingrained in its history. erefore, Maldonado believes the solution is working with artworks instead of against them to continue gaining attention but still be respectful towards important artifacts. “I think [environmentalists] should work on supporting art pieces to get natural pairs of eyes on their movement,” Maldonado said. “It’s just in really poor taste to take someone else’s message and mold it into your own. It’s not getting anything done and you’re making further detriment to what you want your message to be.”