Stunts like throwing soup at a Van Gough painting are necessary if climate activists are “going to protest effectively”, one prominent environmentalist has claimed.
In 2022, two Just Stop Oil activists threw soup at Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers painting in a London gallery to highlight the impact of fossil fuels on the planet.
The pair caused £10,000 (€12,000) worth of damage and received sentences of two years and 20 months.
Judge Christopher Hehir said the painting could have been "seriously damaged or even destroyed" by the two women’s actions.
On Newstalk Breakfast, Guardian journalist George Monbiot said sometimes activists need to break the law if they are “going to protest effectively”.
“That is the truth of the matter; of course, people are outraged by it,” he said.
“The whole idea is to attract attention to issues that have been perennially neglected by politics, by the media in public life and you do have to do quite outrageous things.
“That’s what the suffragettes did.”
🚨 BREAKING: 2 VAN GOGH PAINTINGS SOUPED HOURS AFTER PHOEBE AND ANNA SENTENCED
🥫 3 Just Stop Oil supporters have thrown soup over 2 of Van Gogh paintings in the 'Poets and Lovers' exhibition at the National Gallery.
➡️ Support people in resistance: https://t.co/Rh65arOwa1 pic.twitter.com/Tc3Bvd10OB
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) September 27, 2024
Mr Monbiot also said the sentences had made him question the priorities of the British justice system.
“[The two women] faced more severe sentences than some of the racist rioters in the summer this year,” he said.
“[Some of whom] tried to burn down a hotel housing asylum seekers - yet somehow, this is judged to be a more severe crime.
“At the same time, the people who are crashing the entire planet and our life chances, the executives of the fossil fuel industries and livestock industries, they’re completely untroubled by the law.”
'WWII on steroids'
Mr Monbiot said climate change is the “greatest predicament that humankind has ever faced” and criticised the media for ‘failing fantastically’ to highlight the urgency of the issue.
“It’s like World War Two happening on steroids; if this was World War Two, it would be your top headline every day,” he said.
“There would be a sense of urgency or even emergency, we have to mobilise everything.
“Instead, it’s sort of news item number eight, ‘Oh and by the way, a hurricane’s just ripped apart a whole load of communities in North America and hundreds of people have died.’”
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Main image: Just Stop Oil protest. Picture by: Just Stop Oil.
