海角大神

Climate activists have taken their protests into art museums, employing tactics such as gluing themselves to the frames of famous paintings. Last month, two young women from the group Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup on the glass-protected surface of Van Gogh鈥檚 鈥淪unflowers鈥� at London鈥檚 National Gallery.

The protesters were arrested and the Van Gogh cleaned, but video of the incident went viral. Public reaction ranged from anger to confusion: Why pick on art?聽

As the United Nations climate conference known as COP27 swings into high gear this week in Egypt, the rhetoric around climate change is ratcheting up. Activists say they鈥檝e tried everything to get people鈥檚 attention, and the planet is still warming at an alarming rate.聽

By targeting a beloved masterpiece, protesters are tying 鈥渢he kind of outrage and anxiety we feel when something precious is seen to be under threat鈥� to the destruction of the planet, an organizer for Just Stop Oil told an interviewer.聽

Many of the protesters are young, and they see their future slipping away.聽聽

鈥淭he eco anxiety in this generation is real,鈥� says Christina Limpert, an assistant professor at the State University of New York, Syracuse. She鈥檚 studied student-led environmental protest movements.聽

鈥淭hey鈥檝e tried taking to the streets ... but they can鈥檛 seem to break through,鈥� Professor Limpert says, 鈥渁nd we鈥檙e a culture where spectacle works.鈥澛�

But the risk is that audiences may miss the message, distracted by the shock value. They hear young people yelling slogans, and immediately the labels come out: vandals; attention seekers; irresponsible kids. Such spectacles can inflame the divisions that people already feel.

Professor Limpert encourages student activists to look for the middle ground. Not a place where they give up, or stop speaking out, but where there鈥檚 room for people to build something together. 鈥淲hat does it mean to be a citizen of the Earth instead of just identifying ourselves by these culture-war identities that get people all worked up?鈥� she asks.

Charting a middle path is slower, she says, but 鈥測ou have the power of the people around you.鈥澛�