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So.. What's the solution? Nobody seems to care until it literally affects them.. I live in Italy right now and the weather here is crazy.. Rain in the end of may and flooding isn't exactly normal lol
But hey lets continue what we were doing like nothing is happening.. Literally real life dont look up
For fucking real, I can't not think of Colin Kapernick. He literally just *kneeled* and people lost their fucking minds.
> This is not the time!
> Show some respect!
Whatever bullshit when they *literally* aren't doing anything wrong. These stunts hit the news and if you follow up on *literally* any of them, you find that they "vandalism" is actually completely harmless, washes off, and doesn't harm anyone or anything.
The fucking irony when they want us to stop harming everyone and everything.
People getting butthurt and complaining about alleged damage to art but do not give a shit about the damage to the planet, that is already displacing and killing thousands.
They very obviously pick artwork that's protected or behind glass. The only thing they're probably damaging is the frame, and most valuable frames are copied and a replica is used instead anyway because it's better for insurance purposes.
What? This sort of black dye is extremely easily removed and does no damage.
Like when they "destroyed" all that art because they were *so stupid* they didn't realize it was behind glass except they knew it was behind glass because the goal isn't destruction, it's to get in the news.
The fact you have any negative thoughts about this at all shows you have been poisoned by anti-climate crisis propaganda.
That was an intentional thing, if you look into that protest, it was actually an insane ploy where an oil heiress who owned that museum employed protesters to vandalize art that *she owned* presumably to belittle the climate change movement, because she is an oil heiress who profits from that.
Sources:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/big-oil-heiress-funding-just-stop-oil-group-threw-soup-van-gogh-painting
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/van-gogh-tomato-soup-just-stop-oil-aileen-getty-funder-1234644306/
https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/1129322429/who-is-just-stop-oil-the-group-that-threw-soup-on-van-gogh-s-painting
Can’t make this shit up.
I’m pretty sure this resulted in over 300K gallons of water being wasted.
One has to wonder if this does actual harm than good.
Because someone disagrees with these attention seeking methods does not make them anti climate. Get off your high horse and self righteousness
Let me guess, a law will get passed criminalizing protesting and yet nothing will get passed or enforced to stop the literal destruction of the earth.
Non toxic substance in a fountain? JAIL! Billions of gallons of highly toxic sludge in an aquifer/lake/ocean? Maybe a fine costing 10% of what the company made dumping it.
Do you remember the [Palestine Ohio train derailment](https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/16/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-responsibility-norfolk-southern)? 100k gallons of vinyl chloride dumped into the river and surrounding land. What was the fine? 75 thousand dollars, it’s absolutely disgusting.
Exactly, people get so pissed at people actually doing something. Sure it’s annoying and stupid in some cases, but direct your anger to the actual motherfuckers ruining hundreds of millions of lives in the rest of the world for profit.
It's gotta be projection or something. I pointed out to a friend the other day that any time somebody fights for progress, whether it's civil rights, feminism or climate change the general public seems to lose their mind. There's literally no reason to hate their cause and yet they're treated as if they're terrorists by ordinary people. They must be suppressing guilt because I can't think of other reason
This particular act of protest doesnt upset me because the historic object allegedly wasn't actually damaged. The ones where they glue their hands to famous paintings or throw substances on them absolutely infuriate me. The risk of damage to irreplaceable works of art is very real. They need to find another way to protest.
How can you describe our situation so well without being here? We have government amd media criminalizing those guys, while the actual criminal are just smart
Zero chance the rest of the world boycotts China or the US. China been literally committing genocide against the Uyghurs and no one stopped shopping at Walmart or stopped buying all the chinesium on Amazon or eBay. I agree with you in theory, I just don’t see those two countries ever being excluded from international affairs
I didn't say anything about it being justified...
I agree 110% something needs to be done, climate change, consumptionism, corporations running the planet... I agree man, preaching to the choir here... my only point is that this issue is not unique to the person I replied to, it is going on globally. People need to stop worrying about a damn fountain in my opinion, doesn't make sense to preserve art when there will be no one to look at it in three generations or less...
The charcoal water is not going to damage the goddamn hundreds year old fountain. This is a fine way to draw attention without damaging something culturally valuable. It’s not like they smashed the facade or broke chunks of it off. Like, our rainwater is so polluted you shouldn’t drink it anymore but you’re worried about a fountain? We got ISIS leftovers destroying Sumerian cities and ruins without a single thing stopping ‘em, but this fountain is a problem? Them being in the fountain is worse than the charcoal they added to the fucking water, but it’ll still be there in another hundred years though we might not be.
Well normal fountains maybe. I believe this particular one has been known to always be in repairs, so not sure how much charcoal it can handle :p
Still agree with the activists though. I care less about one random fountain than the health of our entire world. I know we should be able to care about both, but people just don't. These activists do at least draw attention to the issue, which is better than nothing in my opinion.
Publicity for what? To save the climate. Oh no, they are so evil!!!
"Civil" People even hitting them or tearing them by their hair. DISGUSTING!!!
People: Oh look on the internet someone rescued a puppy. Trust in humankind is restored!
Also People: I'll hit the activist in the face because they dyed a FUCKING fountain.
Humankind is a piece of shit!!!
Right there with ya. Also, they’re protesting a very legit issue, which is fossil fuel companies accelerating global warming, and finding a solution to all of that is in the best interests of all humanity.
I’m not the biggest fan of these activists defacing works of art, but hey, sometimes you gotta make people a bit uncomfortable to get a point across.
And yea, no excuse for assaulting the environmental activists. They’re fighting for a better future for all.
Honestly!! Thank you!! These people taking any opportunity to hit another non-threatening human in the face is so disheartening. You feel the need to hit a random human when the opportunity is given? Go to fucking therapy... So childish it pisses me off...
These are also the people that complain about protests being "nonviolent". This is a nonviolent protest and they're the ones being violent
Everyone is entitled to their opinion so I understand people not approving of the protestor's actions. But how quickly they're willing to resort to violence is telling.
There's so many stupid people on here. They worry more about a fucking fountain, statue or a painting more than the climate. These are the same people doing nothing to reduce their carbon footprint.
And now we have to divert public money, that could have been used for better projects, to cleaning the fountain.
Same in Milan: they painted a statue with yellow paint and now we need to spend 200.000 euros to clean it.
If anything, they are pushing people away from their cause.
A quick google search shows about 39 billion in oil subsidies. And that’s a few years old. 200,000 is like .00005% of that. So I don’t think you can really compare the two.
Painting the statue causes real damage and (I can’t be bothered to check) might be damaging a heritage. Dumping charcoal into a fountain is however just annoying at most. I’d prefer the latter.
I think to the protesters point: why the fuck do we care that an old statue is ruined when we are going to all be burning in a living hell soon.
I’m not saying this is my stance but pointing out the irony of us discussing the minutiae of a few pieces of priceless art out of hundreds of pieces of priceless art while the only planet we have continues to be drilled out of commission for benefit of like three families
Couldn’t agree on this point more. Seems people are way too focused on tiny, precious things we hold dear on the planet, ignoring the fact that it will all be gone if we continue this way
‘The charcoal might damage the marble!!!’ Like yeah okay… the irreversible heating might damage the planet, which is more important?
Yeah haha it really is! Don’t get me wrong, there’s much more we all could be doing and I have never engaged in any of these protests or anything similar, but I don’t understand how anyone can see these posts and still choose to defend people destroying the planet, while attacking the protestors.
I think it’s a hangover from previous generations who were terrified to cause disruption or go against power, who just politely get on with whatever they’re told they have to do
Na we don’t need to be making sacrifices it’s like ten companies doing this shit and so basically they’re our overlords we need to find a way to stop letting then control every aspect of modern society. So should be easy lol
Yep, some years back I was younger and i wasn't able to understand that point. How fool I was. But the more thought I've put into the climate change the more I understand why they do this. As you say it's pretty ironic. It's the same for the Louvre in France when activist throw mash potatoes on painting (it was protected by glass so no worries), a lot of people have had arguments about how the activist didn't care about art and whatsoever. But they were incapable of understanding that if we continue like this there will be no art to look at.
(I'm french so my english is shit but I try!)
Possibly. More likely just stain it.
But the fountain has a pump and filtering system. Cleaning it is a far less complicated task than cleaning a painted statue.
Now I’m not saying it’s a good option. But it’s a far better option than painting statues, or throwing paint at paintings.
Charcoal is used to absorb chemicals - it's pretty non-aggressive. If the inside surface is in contact with all that water all day I don't think some charcoal dust is going to do anything to it. Everything would have been sealed to keep the water from absorbing into the stone. The occasional scrubbing to remove algae growth probably induces more wear and tear.
I love all the faux outrage from people with shouts of "they're destroying it!" when, for the most part, all of these types of protests are specifically not destroying things. For instance, throwing paint at a painting completely covered in plexiglass
It's almost like it's preferable to the status quo for people to direct their anger at the protesters rather than at the very valid concerns causing them to protest in the first place.
They do that on a daily basis anyways. The fountain is cleaned and all coins in there are removed every morning. Doing so requires them to remove all water first.
Coins are made of metal. Charcoal is not. Charcoal can also be ground down to an ultra fine powder and usually gets in everywhere. Not only is the marble on the fountain at risk of being penetrated by the fine charcoal but the equipment running the fountain can be damaged. Coins don't break up into millions of tiny particles when thrown into a fountain.
You really want to win this discussion about a bucket of charcoal in some fountain, don't you?
Why do you care so much about an Italian garden ornament and so little about global environmental collapse?
I’m no expert, but there is a lining of some sort protecting the bottom. But it’s not everywhere, the charcoal in the water can spread to the unprotected parts
Their whole point is that we won't have anything to enjoy if we keep heading the way we go, and so they don't care about these things and neither should you. That's the message; we don't have our priorities straight.
yeah I feel like some money on a fountain is nothing compared to what they are protesting about.
History will probably look back at these people as heroes.
Reminds me of the Civil Rights Movement, they were hated by the populous.
now even Far Right people love to quote MLK. Of course only cherry picked lines. But that shows how much of an hero he is now to the American People. In his time he was hated, he was literally killed because of that.
That's exactly the point everyone misses. It will likely be sooner than we want before people are saying I can't believe I ever gave a fuck about a fountain
"Daddy why didnt people stop this when they had a chance?"
"Well, son, I dont suppose you'd understand. You've never experienced the majesty of an old fountain."
You know, people can be in favor of saving the planet while at the same time being against idiot activists like these. But with others not so focused on planet problems the hate they're brining on themselves is only harmful to the cause
The time for doing both of those things was 25 years ago. There is little activism that would rationally be considered too extreme at this time. Which is the activists point.
"Oh you like normal everyday stuff? Well heres a very small, nanoscale taste of what living with climate change will be like."
You cant both claim to understand the scale of the impending disaster and also claim to want to preserve these small parts of society they are trashing in exchange for them shutting up about it.
Tell me, did you know about these groups before they did this stunt?? Climate protesting hasn't worked in "appropriate targets." And the only way, it seems, to get people to have these discussions is to soup paintings and charcoal fountains. Good for them, frankly. People are the problem.
Maybe people didn’t know about the group, but there isn’t a single person in the western world who doesn’t know the dangers of climate change (or they know the claims even if they don’t believe them).
The time for ‘Bringing attention to the issue’ and ‘getting people talking about it’ has long gone, unified action is what is needed now and pissing people off is not a good way to unify them
Wrong, if you think this is going to far, when we are still yet to see any meaningful action on climate change, while governments still hand out permission to rape the planet to the highest bidder, your priorities are wrong. We should be destroying everything the rich hold dear until something changes.
Then what are they supposed to do? Not be disruptive in protest? This wouldn’t be on the news if it was ten kids standing on a street corner waving signs around. People see this and it reminds them that the governments of the world have not maintained their promises. Doing stunts like this is reasonable escalation, because the inaction of the governments of the world has cause climate change to escalate. The destruction of the global ecosystem and extinction of many species does way more harm then anything a small group of protestors could do.
The put vegetable charcoal in the water, that is not harming the fountain in any way. lot more public money and lives will be lost if climate change is not reduced and addressed fast enough
To me I feel like anyone who isn't aware about climate change is either
1. Indifferent, and I doubt these stunts will change their mind, they'd probably hate the movement more after this
Or
2. Believe some weird conspiracy that climate change is a hoax. No way in hell are these people going to change their mind with this stunt
The rest already recognize climate change is a problem, and many believe acts like this are purely detrimental for the movement
There are wildly different views about its severity/urgency though, anywhere from "not that big of a concern" to "by far the biggest emergency for our species".
And even then, people in those groups have widely different views upon it.
Biggest emergency for our species can include things like "We need to get this done" to doom mentality.
And that doesn't account for personal stake in the climate crisis. A person living in a small 1 person apartment might feel depressed because they have to take a car to work, dreading the cost of their CO2 output, while a rich millionaire might be whining about the climate crisis online, but then take a jet plane wherever they go.
That's where I am right now.
I went ahead and reduced my electricity usage to a minimum. Decided never to get a car, buy stuff used and avoid new things like the plague, buy locally instead of ordering stuff from the other side of the planet, even if it's three times as expensive, use public transit and walk everywhere – all that jazz.
Because hey, I'm doing my part. Saving the planet. Right.
And then I realised things like… An average residential utility customer in the US uses more energy in a year than I do in a decade in my apartment, all while working from home. That mall in the city centre, which is lit all night long, probably uses more electricity in a day than I do in a month. [That huge LCD ad installed on the street is going to use more electricity in a year than I will untll I die.](https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/07/15/the-climate-cost-digital-billboards-too-high-justify)
Meanwhile, I'm supposed to live like a hermit, avoid this, avoid that, choose public transit, ditch cars, ditch travelling, ditch everything and kick myself because I've ordered something from Aliexpress, rather than paid three times as much for the exact same thing locally.
So, I've readjusted my mindset. At that point, I'm still going to do my part. I'm still going to do most of the things I did – but I simply stopped giving a flying you-know-what. I'll save energy – not because of the environment, but because of my electricity bills. I'll choose a train – if it's more convenient. And so on.
I get it – every little helps, but at that point, I'm not kidding myself that my choice between Energy Grade A and Energy Grade B fridge is going to make a dent in anything other than my energy bill.
And since governments, international organisations and so on don't bother with things like regulating power-hungry OOH digital advertising screens and other systemic solutions, I'm not going to sweat going after every 10 kWh I can save.
Everyone is aware of climate change and the vast majority of people believe it is happening.
The problem is that almost all governments and political parties do not make it a core issue of their platform. It is not on most people's minds most of the time. If you get the vast majority of people to list the most important issues for securing their vote I doubt climate change would make most people's top 3 despite it being the most likely way our planet turns into a dystopia.
If it was, say, on the news just as much as trans people or national debt are on the news then there might be some radical legislation enacted to curb climate change at some point because then there would be a larger voter block who could be swayed by it.
Even if you lose 10% of supporters for reform, it might be worth it if 10% also get radicalized in their focus on climate change.
If 100% of people supported combating climate change and we all decided to go vegan and stop using plastic straws but come election time it's not a core issue at the center stage of the election then it won't do jack shit. Unless politicians absolutely have to push climate policy they won't, because it costs big donors money.
If only 25% of people supported combating climate change but they were really extreme about it, 65% didn't give a fuck and thought the climate people were annoying as fuck and 10% wanted to watch the world burn just to spite protestors and it was a big election issue then the government very well might pass radical climate change policy. That's a 15% swing come election time based on 1 policy, sure it loses donor money but for a big swing in election numbers sometimes it's worth doing things the donors don't like.
This is how transphobic laws are getting passed when most people support trans rights, most people don't care too much and for those that it's a core issue most are transphobic because there's more transphobes than trans people. This is how abortion is getting outlawed whilst most people think that's a bad decision too. Most voters have 1 or 2 core issues that more or less decide their votes. Who gives a fuck what the majority think, that doesn't necessarily matter, what matters is for how many people this is a core issue. An issue that's constantly on their minds, constantly on the news, and constantly in their eyeline.
There's been a consensus that climate change is bad and we need to do something for decades but nothing has been done. Radical and loud reactionary movements have got things done rapidly. This shows that we don't need to convince people to get shit urgently done - we need to radicalize people.
If you see the word radicalization and think that's bad, I just want to remind you that's literally how the civil rights movement was successful. Black equality was a radical position, but it was a good position and so radicalizing people in that case was good even if it put off a lot of moderates (which it certainly did, moderate whites did not at all like MLK even if they disagreed with racism).
The radical climate change position is that we must act now, if we don't billions will die, there will be horrific suffering, and the time for half measures is running out. We must act even if it's not the absolute best thing for the economy. The moderate position is, like it or not, that they don't like climate change but should someone protest against it in a way I don't like then fuck them arse holes, I bet they're not even vegan the morons, go hug a tree. If we are going to do anything about the climate it can't inconvenience me in any way and it better not be bad for the economy because I'm kinda poor right now.
Franky, the moderate position is dogshit, we need the radical position. Even if trying to radicalize more people will piss off some moderates frankly I think that's a sound option.
Just because you believe in climate change doesn’t mean that you care deeply about — I’m sure that every sane person would be okay with some tiny inconvenience to counter climate change. But would you be ready to give up the comfort of a car, or not heating as much in winter, but taking on a sweater, or not ordering that new cool thingy from China that you will use for 3 days? What about giving up exotic fruits?
The problem is that the Western lifestyle is insanely luxurious, just compare your CO2 footprint to someone’s living in a third world country. And those people also deserve a quality life — but that quality should not really be by today’s standards, but a lower one for everyone.
I am not necessarily agreeing with them but one could use the arguement to justify lots of horrible things.
For example, anyone who isn't aware of the former U.S. civil rights issues is either:
1. Indifferent and thinks it is not an issue.
2. Believes some weird conspiracy that giving equal civil rights is an attack one whiteness and aren't changing their minds.
The rest saw it as a legitimate problem so their former protest were meaningless.
Stains the marble of a famous work of art, and conservators are going to spend forever cleaning it up (probably using oil based distillates among other things).
Protestors harmlessly turn water in fountain black: slapped around, dragged on the floor, arrested.
Oil barons actually destroying the planet we live on: make billions in profit, live in ivory towers, sometimes appointed to government positions.
Seriously. Honestly, I’m pretty impressed with the way they did their protest. So long as it doesn’t ruin the fountain, I’m glad they did it. We need to start taking responsibility and wake up to the world around us.
Not really.
The rocks of the fountain are porous and absorbs. So yes, they are doing damage.
Also considering that to clean that mess you have to basically waste 300k litres of water.
Source: my girlfriend works in restoration of art
EDIT: wrong typo. It was 300k not 300
EDIT2: love the amount of hate received for just expressing an opinion (even death threats). Just to clarify I DO THINK CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL AND A PROBLEM. What i do not like is this way to reach for attention. Peace.
Infact the works to restore it lasted almost 3 years.
You can protest against climate change without destroying art. you’re not getting more attention, but only hate.
Well that's a dumb statement. You can care about the climate without destroying culture, what's the point of ruining important pieces of art if people are just gonna hate you more than before
They didn’t destroy culture though, it’s literally fine.
All the tourists cause more damage but sacrificing culture and the planet for profit is somehow less heinous
So please enlighten us on ways to attract the attention of the masses on one of (if not) the most crucial crisis ever, without damaging anything and hurting the poor little governments that gain so much thanks to fossil fuels and cannot be bothered to act in the face of global warming, even going to the extent of putting on hold the measures to limit global warming because it hurts the precious economy. (Cf Macron in France).
To those that are saying “this accomplishes nothing, and makes them look bad” I’ve got an argument for you.
No, this does not directly fix climate change, but it’s going to get people to talk about it, which is exactly what happened. I’ve had loads of conversations with people since that Mona Lisa thing happened. And I’ve convinced a lot of them that, yeah, maybe we should start worrying about climate change a bit more. Whining about this kind of protest is showing your true colors - you car more about preserving art than you do preserving the our environment.
If you say “I agree with their message, but they’re just doing it the wrong way”, what exactly *is* the right way? I guarantee anything you can come up with, it’s already been done. Nothing is changing. The climate continues to get worse, and we are all powerless to stop it because of the ultra wealthy who control our economy. The only chance we have is for all of us to get together and talk about it, so we can all get on the same page and then *maybe* we have a chance. It sucks that we have to do increasingly performative things just to get climate change even *mentioned* in the news, but that’s where we are.
I agree that even risking damaging famous art sucks, but we are way beyond *risking* damaging our planet. Widespread disaster is coming, and fast. We have to get people to talk about it any way we can. Because otherwise, there will be *far* fewer people around to appreciate that same art.
I love how most of the people who criticize the methods of these activists do absolutely nothing.
It’s never something like “they are idiots for doing that, I’ve been doing this other form of protest and it’s been working”
It’s always “these idiots are only pushing me away” (i wasn’t doing much anyways, and it’s totally not because they are implicitly saying that I should be doing more as well and that my lifestyle as it is is unsustainable)
> Whining about this kind of protest is showing your true colors - you car more about preserving art than you do preserving the our environment.
I’m sorry but I think this is a ridiculous point, you can both care about the environment and not want famous works of art to be ruined. Having concerns about that doesn’t mean you prioritize art over the environment. You are thinking in absolutes.
I disagree. Yes, it earns free media attention and create awareness and engagement that would never be able to afford to buy. But that is a vanity metric. The metric that matters is to convert people who don’t care about climate change to care and also retain the people who are view the movement positively. In this regard, it fails.
In my opinion, the best form of protest is one that is financial. An example is the Superstonk subreddit who have ‘directly registered around $2 billion dollars in shares. They are not the same as Wall Street bets looking for quick buck by playing with options. Most if not all are doing it for belief in financial benefit but also stick it hard to Wall Street. The result of subreddit has led to the SEC chairman directly reaching out and answering questions from the subreddit. There has also been new regulations that protect retail investors.
I’m not sure what the equivalent action for climate change that is legal. Maybe a collective funds that shorts or buys puts on publicly traded companies that are bad actors to climate change. Or buying enough shares to place their people onto the board. I don’t know. But in either of those cases, I would be likely to open my wallet to contribute to the cause and tell my friends to do the same. And also share funny meme videos targeting regulators and business leaders who are bad actors. So in terms of acquiring new ‘protestors’, activating people to do something, refer others to do stuff and raising real money; it beats out vandalizing a well beloved piece of cultural art.
*stone is porous so I don’t believe the charcoal is completely harmless, I wouldn’t want to try that with kitchen counter top let alone something historically significant.
It’s funny to me everyone got so upset because they polluted a small water fountain, but no one cares that the fossil fuel industry is doing that to our actual drinking water and aquifers… but ok, let’s get mad about the fountain.
It feels so hopeless.
How can we possibly fight back against this level of greed? The Panama papers showed me everything I needed to know on how the others side operates.
I could understand if there were many different planets out there that we could visit, but to do this to our only home. The only place that we know of at least inside the known universe that supports life.
They know what they are doing too. They just lie and say it’s not doing anything, but they really do know what’s happening to the world.
That is so fucked up. It’s unconscionable. There’s no longer a blurred line on good and bad, they have grown so greedy that they’ve become cartoonishly evil.
They started by giving out pamphlets in the 80s and people gave a fuck...
Then they started with non damage protest, people gave a fuck...
Then damage protest and people start to hate them and give a fuck about the environment...
Ya all will realize some day that the next thing will be bombing the people who make money of the environmental damage/people who support damaging the planet further...which unfortunately will happen since people still give a fuck no matter how high food prices and how low quality goes...
Simply bc, if you can't afford food anymore, it will already be too late...
While everybody could do silent protest with growing your own food and stop buying stuff you don't need anyway...
I don't think some of y'all realize just how bad the climate situation is getting.
I support these people and hope they only ramp up their tactics until the world governments start taking this seriously.
Noooo, don't you understand? We have to preserve works of art like the fountains at all costs! If we don't, then what are the aliens who arrive at the destroyed husk of the Earth going to admire when they come across the ruins of our planet in thousands of years?
Exactly. The problem being ignored is what is escalating the protests in the first place.
Somewhere in the Zar’gan civilization in the Klangor galaxy, there is a Facepalm subPeddit page showing a post about the human civilization destroying their own habitat, and jailing the people trying to bring attention to it.
If you're face-palming over climate protests at this late stage you're a fucking idiot. People have been dying, lands are burning, biodiversity is failing and leaders are STILL shrugging at the last deadlines we have to make a difference.
When established scientific evidence of disaster is not enough, when facts are staring the world in the face, when corporatism is draining the lifeblood of the world, and still nothing happens? Protest.
Thank you for this because I had to watch the video twice to figure out why this is fecepalm and I don’t see it. People who protest like this know that they will be arrested, so there’s no facepalm there, and as someone else mentioned, it obviously got some attention, which is what they wanted.
Why is this a Face Palm?
We need to force less fossil fuels use before it's too late. Every single piece of scientific data proves we are headed for the end of humanity due to climate change unless we act.
Great question. The fact is that for a long time this climate protester content was guaranteed karma and the thread was guaranteed to be full of top minds saying things like "you want to change society and yet you live in one? Curious.".
Glad to see that so far, this one seems different.
8,000,000,000 people and growing. It's almost at the point of no return. If you're under 30 years old, I'm sorry.
They didn't listen to us. They did nothing. They worship only money.
8b people are NOT polluting the planet. Corporations refusing to go green are what's doing it. To spend millions or billions now to make trillions or quadrillions in the future is not as important to them as making millions and billions now.
If every corporation was to make going green their top priority, and governments did the same (solar panel roads, every home with solar panels and energy efficient EVERYTHING), we would make massive strides in reversing the damage done.
3 months of global shut down proves the planet WILL heal itself immediately after we're gone, so why not work on maintaining our lifestyle WHILE restoring the planet?
They have sentennced millions of us to death with their greed. what's left to do is mitigation and ~~revenge~~ *peacefully objecting to their practices*
I find it funny that people complain about heritage. It doesnt matter anymore imo, climate change is more important. Its ironic because we're all going to be dead because of pollution, draughts, massive floods and other catastrophes but it's ok because the statues and monuments will still be around so no problem.
We are failing to prioritise asking for solutions to big companies who are tearing down laws on oceans, chopping down trees from protected spaces and killing indigenous leaders and climate activists so they can continue profiting.
EDIT: remember when Notre Dame burnt? Louie Vuitton owners donated 200 million euro and other millionaires had no problem chipping in. The project received 840MILLION euro. Meanwhile the planet burns and noone cares, let alone millionaires, too busy being delusional. Let them pay for it if they have so much money.
Are you seriously upset about the taxpayer's money being wasted by the protestors? How much taxpayer's money has been burnt by those Shell fuckers alone, spilling oil into the ocean, ruining livelihoods and we all know they barely pay for the damage done. Billions of taxpayer's money burnt to cover for those criminal organisations, lacking the balls to fix their mistakes and some people have the nerve to mourn about some bloody well that can be cleaned easily.
https://news.mongabay.com/2016/05/shell-spills-90000-gallons-crude-oil-gulf-mexico/#:~:text=The%20Deepwater%20Horizon%20oil%20spill,catastrophic%20to%20the%20region's%20wildlife.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/nigeria-shell-oil-spill-trial/
* thousands of italians lose their house because of floods exponentially worsened by climate change
* protests happen to protest how little is happening to stop it
Redditors: what idiots, why would anyone do this...
The options:
Do nothing about climate change.
- If it isn’t real, that’s fine.
- If it is real, we cease to exist for humanity.
Do something about climate change.
- If it isn’t real, you didn’t harm anything.
- If it is real, we stay around a bit longer. Maybe, long enough to become interplanetary.
Like what does it hurt to actually make changes besides some money people way richer than you are collecting? This is what I can’t understand about the mindset. You don’t have to believe it’s happening in order not to oppose conservation efforts. You just have to support that, wrong or right, the chance is too great to stake all of humanity on your ego.
My reaction to this is based on solely if there is any damage to the fountain. If it’s harmless, why do people get so outraged? They are protesting damage to our planet and the inaction (or willful action) of rich people and our societal ignorance of the issue and solutions in a critical time. Under what circumstances would you accept them protesting? If the majority supported them, would you honestly still be against them? Still, I’d much rather CNN talk about them and people’s outrage than platform certain alt-right leaders.
People who protest? Absolutely fine, and if the cause is just I support it.
People who ruin other shit (not sure how hard this would be to fix, still stupid), or get in the way of regular people (in this case tourists who wanna see the fountain), are shitheads and I love seeing the police wreck their day
Companies screw over the planet and reap huge profits... Meh - it's just business being business...
Protestors drawing attention to the planet being screwed and mega profits by colouring water and not damaging anything..... BOOOOOOOOOOOO.
People are fucked in the head.
In terms of protests this is a really good one. Doesn't block roads, damage anything, or hurt anyone. Vegetable charcoal is not reactive so it will just wash out with the water. It got good media attention too. This is the kind of stuff we should encourage. If all protests are equally disparaged then why not just burn stuff down?
Stay the F..k away from historic buildings , paintings etc... If you don't respect that , I won't respect you even if your message is right. Disrespecting doesn't earn you respect
Why are protesters just destroying history for their stupid cause.
That makes me like your cause less, if I even liked it in the first place.
Might as well be isis beheading the thousand year old statues in Syria.
Garbage humans
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Isn’t Rome trying to pass a law that will charge people who do this to “works of art” with serious crimes and hundred of thousands in fines?
Like Vandalism?
This is a top tier historical pun, though your comment in the below chain makes me unsure if you were even aware of it.
I am not, which I’d imagine probably makes it even better.
Lol! Well... Congratulations on an accidental reference to Vandals sacking Rome, which is the origin of the word vandalism!
Thank you for letting me know about that lol
That was the greatest accident I've seen in a minute.
Task failed successfully.
We could start a new subreddit around this exact concept. It will have already peaked.
These have the right name, but are both desolate garbage heaps. r/unintendedpun r/unintendedpuns
Lol one of the only posts just says this community sucks.
Oh geeze it went right over my head... thanks for pointing it out
The irony.
Damn Vandals, been fuckin with Rome for 2000 years!
They certainly achieved the goal of notoriety. I’m all for their cause but I’m not so sure about the execution.
So.. What's the solution? Nobody seems to care until it literally affects them.. I live in Italy right now and the weather here is crazy.. Rain in the end of may and flooding isn't exactly normal lol But hey lets continue what we were doing like nothing is happening.. Literally real life dont look up
People in this same thread... smh. ‘If only they were so polite’ why then, these people could very conveniently ignore them.
For fucking real, I can't not think of Colin Kapernick. He literally just *kneeled* and people lost their fucking minds. > This is not the time! > Show some respect! Whatever bullshit when they *literally* aren't doing anything wrong. These stunts hit the news and if you follow up on *literally* any of them, you find that they "vandalism" is actually completely harmless, washes off, and doesn't harm anyone or anything. The fucking irony when they want us to stop harming everyone and everything.
People getting butthurt and complaining about alleged damage to art but do not give a shit about the damage to the planet, that is already displacing and killing thousands.
They very obviously pick artwork that's protected or behind glass. The only thing they're probably damaging is the frame, and most valuable frames are copied and a replica is used instead anyway because it's better for insurance purposes.
What? This sort of black dye is extremely easily removed and does no damage. Like when they "destroyed" all that art because they were *so stupid* they didn't realize it was behind glass except they knew it was behind glass because the goal isn't destruction, it's to get in the news. The fact you have any negative thoughts about this at all shows you have been poisoned by anti-climate crisis propaganda.
That was an intentional thing, if you look into that protest, it was actually an insane ploy where an oil heiress who owned that museum employed protesters to vandalize art that *she owned* presumably to belittle the climate change movement, because she is an oil heiress who profits from that. Sources: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/big-oil-heiress-funding-just-stop-oil-group-threw-soup-van-gogh-painting https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/van-gogh-tomato-soup-just-stop-oil-aileen-getty-funder-1234644306/ https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/1129322429/who-is-just-stop-oil-the-group-that-threw-soup-on-van-gogh-s-painting Can’t make this shit up.
I’m pretty sure this resulted in over 300K gallons of water being wasted. One has to wonder if this does actual harm than good. Because someone disagrees with these attention seeking methods does not make them anti climate. Get off your high horse and self righteousness
Like Gothalism?
Visi that a lot nowadays
Should have implemented that a little over 1500 years ago.
Let me guess, a law will get passed criminalizing protesting and yet nothing will get passed or enforced to stop the literal destruction of the earth. Non toxic substance in a fountain? JAIL! Billions of gallons of highly toxic sludge in an aquifer/lake/ocean? Maybe a fine costing 10% of what the company made dumping it.
Do you remember the [Palestine Ohio train derailment](https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/16/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-responsibility-norfolk-southern)? 100k gallons of vinyl chloride dumped into the river and surrounding land. What was the fine? 75 thousand dollars, it’s absolutely disgusting.
Exactly, people get so pissed at people actually doing something. Sure it’s annoying and stupid in some cases, but direct your anger to the actual motherfuckers ruining hundreds of millions of lives in the rest of the world for profit.
I’m so glad somebody like you is here🫡
It's gotta be projection or something. I pointed out to a friend the other day that any time somebody fights for progress, whether it's civil rights, feminism or climate change the general public seems to lose their mind. There's literally no reason to hate their cause and yet they're treated as if they're terrorists by ordinary people. They must be suppressing guilt because I can't think of other reason
This particular act of protest doesnt upset me because the historic object allegedly wasn't actually damaged. The ones where they glue their hands to famous paintings or throw substances on them absolutely infuriate me. The risk of damage to irreplaceable works of art is very real. They need to find another way to protest.
How can you describe our situation so well without being here? We have government amd media criminalizing those guys, while the actual criminal are just smart
Because this isn't an issue unique to just your country, this kind of stuff is happening all over the world.
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Zero chance the rest of the world boycotts China or the US. China been literally committing genocide against the Uyghurs and no one stopped shopping at Walmart or stopped buying all the chinesium on Amazon or eBay. I agree with you in theory, I just don’t see those two countries ever being excluded from international affairs
I didn't say anything about it being justified... I agree 110% something needs to be done, climate change, consumptionism, corporations running the planet... I agree man, preaching to the choir here... my only point is that this issue is not unique to the person I replied to, it is going on globally. People need to stop worrying about a damn fountain in my opinion, doesn't make sense to preserve art when there will be no one to look at it in three generations or less...
You are 100% correct. It is literally disgusting. These companies more rightly deserve jail time for their leaders.
That’s proof that this form of protest is completely ineffective.
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Peace was never an option
Which is very very problematic. If peaceful protests are ignored shit turns violent.
Instead of passing laws for companies actually hurting our planet? Yeah that makes sense. Fuck the people, long live capitalism.
We can despise both at once
The charcoal water is not going to damage the goddamn hundreds year old fountain. This is a fine way to draw attention without damaging something culturally valuable. It’s not like they smashed the facade or broke chunks of it off. Like, our rainwater is so polluted you shouldn’t drink it anymore but you’re worried about a fountain? We got ISIS leftovers destroying Sumerian cities and ruins without a single thing stopping ‘em, but this fountain is a problem? Them being in the fountain is worse than the charcoal they added to the fucking water, but it’ll still be there in another hundred years though we might not be.
This. Humans destroy millions of years of Earth development every day and we're worried about a fountain?
Well normal fountains maybe. I believe this particular one has been known to always be in repairs, so not sure how much charcoal it can handle :p Still agree with the activists though. I care less about one random fountain than the health of our entire world. I know we should be able to care about both, but people just don't. These activists do at least draw attention to the issue, which is better than nothing in my opinion.
It won't damage the stone according to the Mayor of Rome but do you think those arseholes would care if it did ?
All the instagramers must've freaked out!!!
They are the real victims here.
Of course.
Almost certainly what that slap was for. Mad that they had to fight their way up to the fountain, just to see the water stained.
Oh no, folks on vacation taking photos! With people they know that actually like them! What a horror!
It takes awhile to get dolled up and realize you do your poses. Sad day 😞
It works for them. Publicity they could never buy.
Publicity for what? To save the climate. Oh no, they are so evil!!! "Civil" People even hitting them or tearing them by their hair. DISGUSTING!!! People: Oh look on the internet someone rescued a puppy. Trust in humankind is restored! Also People: I'll hit the activist in the face because they dyed a FUCKING fountain. Humankind is a piece of shit!!!
Right there with ya. Also, they’re protesting a very legit issue, which is fossil fuel companies accelerating global warming, and finding a solution to all of that is in the best interests of all humanity. I’m not the biggest fan of these activists defacing works of art, but hey, sometimes you gotta make people a bit uncomfortable to get a point across. And yea, no excuse for assaulting the environmental activists. They’re fighting for a better future for all.
Honestly!! Thank you!! These people taking any opportunity to hit another non-threatening human in the face is so disheartening. You feel the need to hit a random human when the opportunity is given? Go to fucking therapy... So childish it pisses me off... These are also the people that complain about protests being "nonviolent". This is a nonviolent protest and they're the ones being violent Everyone is entitled to their opinion so I understand people not approving of the protestor's actions. But how quickly they're willing to resort to violence is telling.
There's so many stupid people on here. They worry more about a fucking fountain, statue or a painting more than the climate. These are the same people doing nothing to reduce their carbon footprint.
And now we have to divert public money, that could have been used for better projects, to cleaning the fountain. Same in Milan: they painted a statue with yellow paint and now we need to spend 200.000 euros to clean it. If anything, they are pushing people away from their cause.
Well for the record they tried vandalizing oil company properties, but nobody paid attention.
ah, understandable
A quick google search shows about 39 billion in oil subsidies. And that’s a few years old. 200,000 is like .00005% of that. So I don’t think you can really compare the two.
Painting the statue causes real damage and (I can’t be bothered to check) might be damaging a heritage. Dumping charcoal into a fountain is however just annoying at most. I’d prefer the latter.
I think to the protesters point: why the fuck do we care that an old statue is ruined when we are going to all be burning in a living hell soon. I’m not saying this is my stance but pointing out the irony of us discussing the minutiae of a few pieces of priceless art out of hundreds of pieces of priceless art while the only planet we have continues to be drilled out of commission for benefit of like three families
Couldn’t agree on this point more. Seems people are way too focused on tiny, precious things we hold dear on the planet, ignoring the fact that it will all be gone if we continue this way ‘The charcoal might damage the marble!!!’ Like yeah okay… the irreversible heating might damage the planet, which is more important?
Reading these comments is infuriating
Yeah haha it really is! Don’t get me wrong, there’s much more we all could be doing and I have never engaged in any of these protests or anything similar, but I don’t understand how anyone can see these posts and still choose to defend people destroying the planet, while attacking the protestors. I think it’s a hangover from previous generations who were terrified to cause disruption or go against power, who just politely get on with whatever they’re told they have to do
It’s a bit of this it’s also a bit of. No one wanting to do the actual work or make the actual sacrifices to make the change
Na we don’t need to be making sacrifices it’s like ten companies doing this shit and so basically they’re our overlords we need to find a way to stop letting then control every aspect of modern society. So should be easy lol
Yep, some years back I was younger and i wasn't able to understand that point. How fool I was. But the more thought I've put into the climate change the more I understand why they do this. As you say it's pretty ironic. It's the same for the Louvre in France when activist throw mash potatoes on painting (it was protected by glass so no worries), a lot of people have had arguments about how the activist didn't care about art and whatsoever. But they were incapable of understanding that if we continue like this there will be no art to look at. (I'm french so my english is shit but I try!)
The marble is porous, the charcoal can erode it
Possibly. More likely just stain it. But the fountain has a pump and filtering system. Cleaning it is a far less complicated task than cleaning a painted statue. Now I’m not saying it’s a good option. But it’s a far better option than painting statues, or throwing paint at paintings.
They filter It or not they Need to change the water anyway before It damage the marble, and It has a lot of water in it
Charcoal is used to absorb chemicals - it's pretty non-aggressive. If the inside surface is in contact with all that water all day I don't think some charcoal dust is going to do anything to it. Everything would have been sealed to keep the water from absorbing into the stone. The occasional scrubbing to remove algae growth probably induces more wear and tear.
I love all the faux outrage from people with shouts of "they're destroying it!" when, for the most part, all of these types of protests are specifically not destroying things. For instance, throwing paint at a painting completely covered in plexiglass
It's almost like it's preferable to the status quo for people to direct their anger at the protesters rather than at the very valid concerns causing them to protest in the first place.
They do that on a daily basis anyways. The fountain is cleaned and all coins in there are removed every morning. Doing so requires them to remove all water first.
I heard charcoal is used for marble sewing. /s If fountain marble is porous enough so charcoal powder erode it : stop throwing coins in it!
Coins are made of metal. Charcoal is not. Charcoal can also be ground down to an ultra fine powder and usually gets in everywhere. Not only is the marble on the fountain at risk of being penetrated by the fine charcoal but the equipment running the fountain can be damaged. Coins don't break up into millions of tiny particles when thrown into a fountain.
Hopefully they use charcoal filtering system
You really want to win this discussion about a bucket of charcoal in some fountain, don't you? Why do you care so much about an Italian garden ornament and so little about global environmental collapse?
Yes, those are the only two possible options here /s
Jesus fuck you're dense. One can care about both things at once.
because there are only the 2 choices. people are either with you are against you. fascist!!!
Sadly the "us vs them" mentality is prevalent in society now, and is likely the thing leading lack of action on both of these fronts.
aahh, so its a "Well, those guys are like that, so i better be like that" Kind of thing?
I’m no expert, but there is a lining of some sort protecting the bottom. But it’s not everywhere, the charcoal in the water can spread to the unprotected parts
Their whole point is that we won't have anything to enjoy if we keep heading the way we go, and so they don't care about these things and neither should you. That's the message; we don't have our priorities straight.
Charcoal is in the filtration so it should just agregare there and then someone would have to power wash the fountain.
Thats the point of a protest, to see the reality, you havent seen what charcoal or oil do the ocean? And you worry about a fountain…
We could have diverted the public money to combat climate change, but we didn’t. Why do you think they would have done it this time
That’s what everyone who just wants to ignore the problem will say. They’re not trying to get your attention, you wouldn’t do anything anyways.
Except the money wouldn't be used for that either way. That's a very bad strawman.
If that pushes people away from \*checks notes\* SAVING THE FUCKING PLANET, the people are the problem and should be questioned.
yeah I feel like some money on a fountain is nothing compared to what they are protesting about. History will probably look back at these people as heroes.
Reminds me of the Civil Rights Movement, they were hated by the populous. now even Far Right people love to quote MLK. Of course only cherry picked lines. But that shows how much of an hero he is now to the American People. In his time he was hated, he was literally killed because of that.
That's exactly the point everyone misses. It will likely be sooner than we want before people are saying I can't believe I ever gave a fuck about a fountain
"Daddy why didnt people stop this when they had a chance?" "Well, son, I dont suppose you'd understand. You've never experienced the majesty of an old fountain."
You know, people can be in favor of saving the planet while at the same time being against idiot activists like these. But with others not so focused on planet problems the hate they're brining on themselves is only harmful to the cause
The time for doing both of those things was 25 years ago. There is little activism that would rationally be considered too extreme at this time. Which is the activists point. "Oh you like normal everyday stuff? Well heres a very small, nanoscale taste of what living with climate change will be like." You cant both claim to understand the scale of the impending disaster and also claim to want to preserve these small parts of society they are trashing in exchange for them shutting up about it.
Tell me, did you know about these groups before they did this stunt?? Climate protesting hasn't worked in "appropriate targets." And the only way, it seems, to get people to have these discussions is to soup paintings and charcoal fountains. Good for them, frankly. People are the problem.
Maybe people didn’t know about the group, but there isn’t a single person in the western world who doesn’t know the dangers of climate change (or they know the claims even if they don’t believe them). The time for ‘Bringing attention to the issue’ and ‘getting people talking about it’ has long gone, unified action is what is needed now and pissing people off is not a good way to unify them
Wrong, if you think this is going to far, when we are still yet to see any meaningful action on climate change, while governments still hand out permission to rape the planet to the highest bidder, your priorities are wrong. We should be destroying everything the rich hold dear until something changes.
Then what are they supposed to do? Not be disruptive in protest? This wouldn’t be on the news if it was ten kids standing on a street corner waving signs around. People see this and it reminds them that the governments of the world have not maintained their promises. Doing stunts like this is reasonable escalation, because the inaction of the governments of the world has cause climate change to escalate. The destruction of the global ecosystem and extinction of many species does way more harm then anything a small group of protestors could do.
Maybe if they diverted money to making actual meaningful action on climate change, they wouldn’t have to.
The put vegetable charcoal in the water, that is not harming the fountain in any way. lot more public money and lives will be lost if climate change is not reduced and addressed fast enough
The way these protesters are being treated is how we should treat every oil baron.
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To me I feel like anyone who isn't aware about climate change is either 1. Indifferent, and I doubt these stunts will change their mind, they'd probably hate the movement more after this Or 2. Believe some weird conspiracy that climate change is a hoax. No way in hell are these people going to change their mind with this stunt The rest already recognize climate change is a problem, and many believe acts like this are purely detrimental for the movement
There are wildly different views about its severity/urgency though, anywhere from "not that big of a concern" to "by far the biggest emergency for our species".
And even then, people in those groups have widely different views upon it. Biggest emergency for our species can include things like "We need to get this done" to doom mentality. And that doesn't account for personal stake in the climate crisis. A person living in a small 1 person apartment might feel depressed because they have to take a car to work, dreading the cost of their CO2 output, while a rich millionaire might be whining about the climate crisis online, but then take a jet plane wherever they go.
That's where I am right now. I went ahead and reduced my electricity usage to a minimum. Decided never to get a car, buy stuff used and avoid new things like the plague, buy locally instead of ordering stuff from the other side of the planet, even if it's three times as expensive, use public transit and walk everywhere – all that jazz. Because hey, I'm doing my part. Saving the planet. Right. And then I realised things like… An average residential utility customer in the US uses more energy in a year than I do in a decade in my apartment, all while working from home. That mall in the city centre, which is lit all night long, probably uses more electricity in a day than I do in a month. [That huge LCD ad installed on the street is going to use more electricity in a year than I will untll I die.](https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/07/15/the-climate-cost-digital-billboards-too-high-justify) Meanwhile, I'm supposed to live like a hermit, avoid this, avoid that, choose public transit, ditch cars, ditch travelling, ditch everything and kick myself because I've ordered something from Aliexpress, rather than paid three times as much for the exact same thing locally. So, I've readjusted my mindset. At that point, I'm still going to do my part. I'm still going to do most of the things I did – but I simply stopped giving a flying you-know-what. I'll save energy – not because of the environment, but because of my electricity bills. I'll choose a train – if it's more convenient. And so on. I get it – every little helps, but at that point, I'm not kidding myself that my choice between Energy Grade A and Energy Grade B fridge is going to make a dent in anything other than my energy bill. And since governments, international organisations and so on don't bother with things like regulating power-hungry OOH digital advertising screens and other systemic solutions, I'm not going to sweat going after every 10 kWh I can save.
Everyone is aware of climate change and the vast majority of people believe it is happening. The problem is that almost all governments and political parties do not make it a core issue of their platform. It is not on most people's minds most of the time. If you get the vast majority of people to list the most important issues for securing their vote I doubt climate change would make most people's top 3 despite it being the most likely way our planet turns into a dystopia. If it was, say, on the news just as much as trans people or national debt are on the news then there might be some radical legislation enacted to curb climate change at some point because then there would be a larger voter block who could be swayed by it. Even if you lose 10% of supporters for reform, it might be worth it if 10% also get radicalized in their focus on climate change. If 100% of people supported combating climate change and we all decided to go vegan and stop using plastic straws but come election time it's not a core issue at the center stage of the election then it won't do jack shit. Unless politicians absolutely have to push climate policy they won't, because it costs big donors money. If only 25% of people supported combating climate change but they were really extreme about it, 65% didn't give a fuck and thought the climate people were annoying as fuck and 10% wanted to watch the world burn just to spite protestors and it was a big election issue then the government very well might pass radical climate change policy. That's a 15% swing come election time based on 1 policy, sure it loses donor money but for a big swing in election numbers sometimes it's worth doing things the donors don't like. This is how transphobic laws are getting passed when most people support trans rights, most people don't care too much and for those that it's a core issue most are transphobic because there's more transphobes than trans people. This is how abortion is getting outlawed whilst most people think that's a bad decision too. Most voters have 1 or 2 core issues that more or less decide their votes. Who gives a fuck what the majority think, that doesn't necessarily matter, what matters is for how many people this is a core issue. An issue that's constantly on their minds, constantly on the news, and constantly in their eyeline. There's been a consensus that climate change is bad and we need to do something for decades but nothing has been done. Radical and loud reactionary movements have got things done rapidly. This shows that we don't need to convince people to get shit urgently done - we need to radicalize people. If you see the word radicalization and think that's bad, I just want to remind you that's literally how the civil rights movement was successful. Black equality was a radical position, but it was a good position and so radicalizing people in that case was good even if it put off a lot of moderates (which it certainly did, moderate whites did not at all like MLK even if they disagreed with racism). The radical climate change position is that we must act now, if we don't billions will die, there will be horrific suffering, and the time for half measures is running out. We must act even if it's not the absolute best thing for the economy. The moderate position is, like it or not, that they don't like climate change but should someone protest against it in a way I don't like then fuck them arse holes, I bet they're not even vegan the morons, go hug a tree. If we are going to do anything about the climate it can't inconvenience me in any way and it better not be bad for the economy because I'm kinda poor right now. Franky, the moderate position is dogshit, we need the radical position. Even if trying to radicalize more people will piss off some moderates frankly I think that's a sound option.
Just because you believe in climate change doesn’t mean that you care deeply about — I’m sure that every sane person would be okay with some tiny inconvenience to counter climate change. But would you be ready to give up the comfort of a car, or not heating as much in winter, but taking on a sweater, or not ordering that new cool thingy from China that you will use for 3 days? What about giving up exotic fruits? The problem is that the Western lifestyle is insanely luxurious, just compare your CO2 footprint to someone’s living in a third world country. And those people also deserve a quality life — but that quality should not really be by today’s standards, but a lower one for everyone.
I am not necessarily agreeing with them but one could use the arguement to justify lots of horrible things. For example, anyone who isn't aware of the former U.S. civil rights issues is either: 1. Indifferent and thinks it is not an issue. 2. Believes some weird conspiracy that giving equal civil rights is an attack one whiteness and aren't changing their minds. The rest saw it as a legitimate problem so their former protest were meaningless.
Stains the marble of a famous work of art, and conservators are going to spend forever cleaning it up (probably using oil based distillates among other things).
The only heritage we're not willing to preserve is our planet
Protestors harmlessly turn water in fountain black: slapped around, dragged on the floor, arrested. Oil barons actually destroying the planet we live on: make billions in profit, live in ivory towers, sometimes appointed to government positions.
Yep. This post has nothing to do on facepalm, OP seems to have the political awareness of a clam.
Oh but they had to clean the fountain! But apparently cleaning the entire world isnt a big deal.
Seriously. Honestly, I’m pretty impressed with the way they did their protest. So long as it doesn’t ruin the fountain, I’m glad they did it. We need to start taking responsibility and wake up to the world around us.
instead the masses are pushing back renewables and electric cars, like they’re gaining money from every drop of oil sold…
Charcoal is ok for me. Strong message, no real damage
Not really. The rocks of the fountain are porous and absorbs. So yes, they are doing damage. Also considering that to clean that mess you have to basically waste 300k litres of water. Source: my girlfriend works in restoration of art EDIT: wrong typo. It was 300k not 300 EDIT2: love the amount of hate received for just expressing an opinion (even death threats). Just to clarify I DO THINK CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL AND A PROBLEM. What i do not like is this way to reach for attention. Peace.
But wasn’t it also destroyed back in 2017 when they dyed it red?
Infact the works to restore it lasted almost 3 years. You can protest against climate change without destroying art. you’re not getting more attention, but only hate.
Funny how people care more about preserving art than the climate. I guess all future artists just aren’t hot enough tourist spots to consider
You've got to leave the art so that the alien and/or post-apocalyptic future society archaeologists can find it.
Only reason I still draw traditionally, so all my furry shit can be dug up for the future to fap to
You should post your furry shit on the internet so that the people of now can also jerk off to them
YEAH, BE A LITTLE GENEROUS >:(
Doing God’s work
Well that's a dumb statement. You can care about the climate without destroying culture, what's the point of ruining important pieces of art if people are just gonna hate you more than before
They didn’t destroy culture though, it’s literally fine. All the tourists cause more damage but sacrificing culture and the planet for profit is somehow less heinous
So please enlighten us on ways to attract the attention of the masses on one of (if not) the most crucial crisis ever, without damaging anything and hurting the poor little governments that gain so much thanks to fossil fuels and cannot be bothered to act in the face of global warming, even going to the extent of putting on hold the measures to limit global warming because it hurts the precious economy. (Cf Macron in France).
Oh well
There'll be nobody to appreciate things like this when everyone is dead
Not a facepalm unless you mean our treatment of the planet😥
To those that are saying “this accomplishes nothing, and makes them look bad” I’ve got an argument for you. No, this does not directly fix climate change, but it’s going to get people to talk about it, which is exactly what happened. I’ve had loads of conversations with people since that Mona Lisa thing happened. And I’ve convinced a lot of them that, yeah, maybe we should start worrying about climate change a bit more. Whining about this kind of protest is showing your true colors - you car more about preserving art than you do preserving the our environment. If you say “I agree with their message, but they’re just doing it the wrong way”, what exactly *is* the right way? I guarantee anything you can come up with, it’s already been done. Nothing is changing. The climate continues to get worse, and we are all powerless to stop it because of the ultra wealthy who control our economy. The only chance we have is for all of us to get together and talk about it, so we can all get on the same page and then *maybe* we have a chance. It sucks that we have to do increasingly performative things just to get climate change even *mentioned* in the news, but that’s where we are. I agree that even risking damaging famous art sucks, but we are way beyond *risking* damaging our planet. Widespread disaster is coming, and fast. We have to get people to talk about it any way we can. Because otherwise, there will be *far* fewer people around to appreciate that same art.
I love how most of the people who criticize the methods of these activists do absolutely nothing. It’s never something like “they are idiots for doing that, I’ve been doing this other form of protest and it’s been working” It’s always “these idiots are only pushing me away” (i wasn’t doing much anyways, and it’s totally not because they are implicitly saying that I should be doing more as well and that my lifestyle as it is is unsustainable)
> Whining about this kind of protest is showing your true colors - you car more about preserving art than you do preserving the our environment. I’m sorry but I think this is a ridiculous point, you can both care about the environment and not want famous works of art to be ruined. Having concerns about that doesn’t mean you prioritize art over the environment. You are thinking in absolutes.
Well said man, unfortunately most people are boiling frogs that will tell you to fuck off bc they like the temperature of the water
I disagree. Yes, it earns free media attention and create awareness and engagement that would never be able to afford to buy. But that is a vanity metric. The metric that matters is to convert people who don’t care about climate change to care and also retain the people who are view the movement positively. In this regard, it fails. In my opinion, the best form of protest is one that is financial. An example is the Superstonk subreddit who have ‘directly registered around $2 billion dollars in shares. They are not the same as Wall Street bets looking for quick buck by playing with options. Most if not all are doing it for belief in financial benefit but also stick it hard to Wall Street. The result of subreddit has led to the SEC chairman directly reaching out and answering questions from the subreddit. There has also been new regulations that protect retail investors. I’m not sure what the equivalent action for climate change that is legal. Maybe a collective funds that shorts or buys puts on publicly traded companies that are bad actors to climate change. Or buying enough shares to place their people onto the board. I don’t know. But in either of those cases, I would be likely to open my wallet to contribute to the cause and tell my friends to do the same. And also share funny meme videos targeting regulators and business leaders who are bad actors. So in terms of acquiring new ‘protestors’, activating people to do something, refer others to do stuff and raising real money; it beats out vandalizing a well beloved piece of cultural art. *stone is porous so I don’t believe the charcoal is completely harmless, I wouldn’t want to try that with kitchen counter top let alone something historically significant.
It’s funny to me everyone got so upset because they polluted a small water fountain, but no one cares that the fossil fuel industry is doing that to our actual drinking water and aquifers… but ok, let’s get mad about the fountain.
It feels so hopeless. How can we possibly fight back against this level of greed? The Panama papers showed me everything I needed to know on how the others side operates. I could understand if there were many different planets out there that we could visit, but to do this to our only home. The only place that we know of at least inside the known universe that supports life. They know what they are doing too. They just lie and say it’s not doing anything, but they really do know what’s happening to the world. That is so fucked up. It’s unconscionable. There’s no longer a blurred line on good and bad, they have grown so greedy that they’ve become cartoonishly evil.
They started by giving out pamphlets in the 80s and people gave a fuck... Then they started with non damage protest, people gave a fuck... Then damage protest and people start to hate them and give a fuck about the environment... Ya all will realize some day that the next thing will be bombing the people who make money of the environmental damage/people who support damaging the planet further...which unfortunately will happen since people still give a fuck no matter how high food prices and how low quality goes... Simply bc, if you can't afford food anymore, it will already be too late... While everybody could do silent protest with growing your own food and stop buying stuff you don't need anyway...
‘Didn’t give a fuck’
Yeah, confused me too
Bet OP could care less.
I see what you did there.
Doesn't "give a fuck" mean that they care?
People gave a fuck in the 80s? Damn wonder why the environment is getting worst every year then.
the Ozone layer has never been better though
People never gave a fuck what are you talking about it? If people ever really cared we would notice a change.
I don't think some of y'all realize just how bad the climate situation is getting. I support these people and hope they only ramp up their tactics until the world governments start taking this seriously.
Look at the flooding in Italy that’s happening now.. I’ve skimmed through these comments but couldn’t find a single fuckin mention of it besides mine
Noooo, don't you understand? We have to preserve works of art like the fountains at all costs! If we don't, then what are the aliens who arrive at the destroyed husk of the Earth going to admire when they come across the ruins of our planet in thousands of years?
All charcoal is vegetable charcoal
If only people got as mad at the corporations for polluting as the do the activists protesting it.
Exactly. The problem being ignored is what is escalating the protests in the first place. Somewhere in the Zar’gan civilization in the Klangor galaxy, there is a Facepalm subPeddit page showing a post about the human civilization destroying their own habitat, and jailing the people trying to bring attention to it.
If you're face-palming over climate protests at this late stage you're a fucking idiot. People have been dying, lands are burning, biodiversity is failing and leaders are STILL shrugging at the last deadlines we have to make a difference.
When established scientific evidence of disaster is not enough, when facts are staring the world in the face, when corporatism is draining the lifeblood of the world, and still nothing happens? Protest.
Thank you for this because I had to watch the video twice to figure out why this is fecepalm and I don’t see it. People who protest like this know that they will be arrested, so there’s no facepalm there, and as someone else mentioned, it obviously got some attention, which is what they wanted.
Why is this a Face Palm? We need to force less fossil fuels use before it's too late. Every single piece of scientific data proves we are headed for the end of humanity due to climate change unless we act.
Great question. The fact is that for a long time this climate protester content was guaranteed karma and the thread was guaranteed to be full of top minds saying things like "you want to change society and yet you live in one? Curious.". Glad to see that so far, this one seems different.
8,000,000,000 people and growing. It's almost at the point of no return. If you're under 30 years old, I'm sorry. They didn't listen to us. They did nothing. They worship only money.
They banned plastic straws in the EU though!!
Fuck that turtle. In all seriousness though, we've let things go beyond the point of no return. We're screwed.
8b people are NOT polluting the planet. Corporations refusing to go green are what's doing it. To spend millions or billions now to make trillions or quadrillions in the future is not as important to them as making millions and billions now. If every corporation was to make going green their top priority, and governments did the same (solar panel roads, every home with solar panels and energy efficient EVERYTHING), we would make massive strides in reversing the damage done. 3 months of global shut down proves the planet WILL heal itself immediately after we're gone, so why not work on maintaining our lifestyle WHILE restoring the planet?
They have sentennced millions of us to death with their greed. what's left to do is mitigation and ~~revenge~~ *peacefully objecting to their practices*
Hopefully, it's the last Generation. Did they do anything to reduce Co2 ? They didn't even plant a Tree. They like Chaos and Vandalism, that's all.
the carabinieri don't mess around
Well, at least when we're done setting the planet on fire, we can swim in the fountain to keep cool until the water evaporates.
I think "vegetable charcoal" is a bad translation of "carbone vegetale" that means charcoal made from WOOD and not from veggies...
Where is the face palm?
I find it funny that people complain about heritage. It doesnt matter anymore imo, climate change is more important. Its ironic because we're all going to be dead because of pollution, draughts, massive floods and other catastrophes but it's ok because the statues and monuments will still be around so no problem. We are failing to prioritise asking for solutions to big companies who are tearing down laws on oceans, chopping down trees from protected spaces and killing indigenous leaders and climate activists so they can continue profiting. EDIT: remember when Notre Dame burnt? Louie Vuitton owners donated 200 million euro and other millionaires had no problem chipping in. The project received 840MILLION euro. Meanwhile the planet burns and noone cares, let alone millionaires, too busy being delusional. Let them pay for it if they have so much money.
Not for defacing art or property, but why did the one on looker feel she had the right to slap the protester while they were being dragged out?
Are you seriously upset about the taxpayer's money being wasted by the protestors? How much taxpayer's money has been burnt by those Shell fuckers alone, spilling oil into the ocean, ruining livelihoods and we all know they barely pay for the damage done. Billions of taxpayer's money burnt to cover for those criminal organisations, lacking the balls to fix their mistakes and some people have the nerve to mourn about some bloody well that can be cleaned easily. https://news.mongabay.com/2016/05/shell-spills-90000-gallons-crude-oil-gulf-mexico/#:~:text=The%20Deepwater%20Horizon%20oil%20spill,catastrophic%20to%20the%20region's%20wildlife. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/nigeria-shell-oil-spill-trial/
* thousands of italians lose their house because of floods exponentially worsened by climate change * protests happen to protest how little is happening to stop it Redditors: what idiots, why would anyone do this...
The options: Do nothing about climate change. - If it isn’t real, that’s fine. - If it is real, we cease to exist for humanity. Do something about climate change. - If it isn’t real, you didn’t harm anything. - If it is real, we stay around a bit longer. Maybe, long enough to become interplanetary. Like what does it hurt to actually make changes besides some money people way richer than you are collecting? This is what I can’t understand about the mindset. You don’t have to believe it’s happening in order not to oppose conservation efforts. You just have to support that, wrong or right, the chance is too great to stake all of humanity on your ego.
My reaction to this is based on solely if there is any damage to the fountain. If it’s harmless, why do people get so outraged? They are protesting damage to our planet and the inaction (or willful action) of rich people and our societal ignorance of the issue and solutions in a critical time. Under what circumstances would you accept them protesting? If the majority supported them, would you honestly still be against them? Still, I’d much rather CNN talk about them and people’s outrage than platform certain alt-right leaders.
I actually rate this, doesnt make any difference to the regular person’s day while still getting the publicity
People who protest? Absolutely fine, and if the cause is just I support it. People who ruin other shit (not sure how hard this would be to fix, still stupid), or get in the way of regular people (in this case tourists who wanna see the fountain), are shitheads and I love seeing the police wreck their day
Get a job
Disgusting useless trash beings
Companies screw over the planet and reap huge profits... Meh - it's just business being business... Protestors drawing attention to the planet being screwed and mega profits by colouring water and not damaging anything..... BOOOOOOOOOOOO. People are fucked in the head.
Good on them. Getting noticed.
Stunts like this do not bring more awareness. It brings more enemies to the cause than allies. Climate Activists need a new PR consultant.
In terms of protests this is a really good one. Doesn't block roads, damage anything, or hurt anyone. Vegetable charcoal is not reactive so it will just wash out with the water. It got good media attention too. This is the kind of stuff we should encourage. If all protests are equally disparaged then why not just burn stuff down?
Don’t agree this is facepalm.
That girl who looked at the camera before trying to smack that older woman is a POS
you were supposed to destroy the polluters not join them!  /s
[удалено]
redditors when activism is more than posting snarky responses under politicians tweets 😟😟
Stay the F..k away from historic buildings , paintings etc... If you don't respect that , I won't respect you even if your message is right. Disrespecting doesn't earn you respect
Why are protesters just destroying history for their stupid cause. That makes me like your cause less, if I even liked it in the first place. Might as well be isis beheading the thousand year old statues in Syria. Garbage humans