European climate activists have struck again. Eight members of Italy-based advocacy group Ultima Generazione dyed Rome’s 18th-century Trevi Fountain black on Sunday May 21 to protest the country’s fossil fuel subsidies. The group linked the payments to the devastating floods that have swept through the Emilia-Romagna region over the past week, killing at least 13 peoplemoving some 23,000And destroy thousands of farms.
“The only way to prevent this from happening is to stop fossil fuel emissions,” Mattia, a 19-year-old member of Ultima Generazione, said in a statement shared with Hyperallergic. “We have decided to rebel against those who condemn us to death.”
The action began at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday and the police arrived almost immediately on the scene: by 11:45 a.m. the authorities had evacuated all the activists. Videos released online show police wading through black water to physically clear protesters from the fountain. Ultima Generazione said its members poured “vegetable charcoal” into the fountain and did not damage the iconic site.
Early April, Ultima Generation complexion Rome’s Barcaccia fountain black and hung a banner over the Calamo fountain in Ancona that read ‘We don’t pay for fossils[s].” Last summer, the members of the group glue to the “Primavera” by Sandro Botticelli (circa 1480) at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and attached themselves at the base of the ancient Roman statue “Laocoön and his sons” in the Vatican.
Large-scale climate actions in cultural spaces seem to have slowed compared to last year, when incidents such as launch the tomato soup on Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” (1888) attracted international media attention. mayor of Rome critical Sunday’s action, and the Italian government seems determined to curb these protests. Last month, Conservative lawmakers pushed a bill imposing fines ranging from €10,000 (~$11,000) to €60,000 (~$66,000) for damage to works of art, buildings and monuments.
Meanwhile, climate activists this morning stormed the annual meeting of shareholders of oil and gas company Shell in London. The company recorded a record £32.2 billion (∼$39.9 billion) in profits last year, the highest since it was founded in 1912. Shell says it aims to have net-zero emissions by 2050, but climate groups want the company reduces fossil fuels by 2030.
