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Why Are Leftists Fighting ‘Big Oil’ By Gluing Themselves To Things?

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Josh Hypes Contributor
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Climate activists glued themselves to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, the latest incident where activists are using sticky tactics to pressure the public into making climate concessions.

The environmental movement has recently used glue in places ranging from the U.S. Capitol to roadways in Germany and Britain; five activists with the environmental organization Just Stop Oil glued themselves to the frame of a copy of da Vinci’s The Last Supper at the Royal Academy in London on Tuesday, the group announced in a statement. The activists spray-painted “No New Oil” on the wall beneath the painting, protesting delayed action against climate change and the continued production of fossil fuels.

 

One protestor said the group targeted The Last Supper because it illustrated the ongoing food crisis exacerbated by rising temperatures, according to The Independent.

“Food production is down and crops are failing,” he said. “Any more oil production or new oil infrastructure projects are going to tip us over the edge possibly to 2 degrees of warming.”

The protestor said more people will be at risk of starvation as crops fail.

“The future of this planet is facing its last supper in many regards,” he added.

The protest is the latest in a string of incidents across the United Kingdom to pressure the government into halting new oil production, according to the Washington Examiner. Last week, Just Stop Oil targeted museums in London, Glasgow and Manchester, housing works by Vincent Van Gough, J.M.W. Turner and Horatio McCulloch.

Just Stop Oil previously glued themselves to roadways and climbed on top of oil tankers in Essex in a 12-day-long protest in April, according to The Independent.

In another incident in 2019, 16 protestors from the climate change activist group Extinction Rebellion glued themselves to the underground shuttles in the U.S. Capitol complex hoping to address representatives on their way to vote, according to USA Today.

In February, German climate activists glued themselves to a major roadway in Berlin demanding legislation to further cut carbon emissions, Gizmodo reported.

In 2021, the climate activist organization Insulate Britain also glued itself to roadways in Parliament Square, Sky News reported.

On Monday, two Just Stop Oil protestors were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage for sticking themselves to John Constable’s The Hay Wain in the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Police Service told The Daily Caller News Foundation. The protestors covered the surface of the painting with three sheets of paper depicting an apocalyptic reimagination of the paintingthe National Gallery in London told TheDCNF.

One of the protestors said on the Just Stop Oil website the painting distracts the public from the existential climate crisis.

“You can forget our ‘green and pleasant land’ when further oil extraction will lead to widespread crop failures which means we will be fighting for food,” she said. “Ultimately, new fossil fuels are a death project by our government. So yes there is glue on the frame of this painting but there is blood on the hands of our government.”

The Royal Academy of Art did not respond to TheDCNF’s after-hours request for comment. Just Stop Oil did not respond immediately to TheDCNF’s request for comment.

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