Throwing paint at masterpieces.
Blocking traffic. Climbing atop oil terminals.
Climate activists are using tactics
that have been getting a lot of attention.
And they are getting a lot of backlash for it, too.
"Spraying orange paint is an absolute
numbskull, knuckle-dragging, daft thing to do."
"Their ideas are dangerous and awful."
But the activists insist that desperate times call
for desperate measures.
"We are concerned citizens,
and we have run out of options."
And that these strategies are what cause
shifts in our social reality.
"We're following a very traditional cycle
in terms of the way social change happens."
We'll try to answer the question that
you've maybe asked yourself –
does it distract from the cause
or is it an effective force of change?
When two activists representing Just Stop Oil
threw a can of tomato soup on Van Gogh's Sunflowers
painting in London, it made a big splash.
Some outlets were sympathetic to the cause.
Others, not so much.
Pundits debated if the tactic was effective in bringing
about real action against climate change.
When Just Stop Oil tried to thwart operations
at an oil depot in Scotland, they were called an eco mob.
"I think they're wrong."
"I think their action is wrong."
"You have no right,
you have absolutely no right
to obstract other people's daily lives."
"I hate what they do, I don't hate them individually."
"They are deluted if they think
they're going to change government policy."
And it's not only journalists and pundits
who say the methods can be problematic.
"I think it's very important, what they are doing at the moment,
to try to pressure the state into changing their political
direction of course. In Germany and in other countries as well."
"But for me, at some point it's too much, right?"
"It's too much when they block the traffic."
Extinction Rebellion seems to have had this realization, too.
The organization says they're quitting public disruption
campaigns this year – and will focus on
relationships over roadblocks.
Just Stop Oil, on the other hand, doesn't have plans
to stop disrupting the public.
Actually, the Van Gogh painting was protected
by a sheet of plexiglass.
It wasn't damaged and back on display
the same day of the incident.
The idea of abusing art does seem to alienate a lot of people.
But it's actually not new at all.
"There is also actually a history of action at museums."
Dr. Dana Fisher is a sociologist
at the University of Maryland.
She studies activism and climate politics.
"The Suffragettes were famous for slashing art in museums."
Looking back, historians agree this direct action and
radical activism changed the course of women's history.
And led them to gain the right to vote.
Civil disobedience was also central to the fight for
racial equality which ultimately led to
the pivotal Civil Rights Act in the U.S.
"Almost every action that was taken
by the civil rights movement activists,
including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. –
were all vilified and public opinion was against them."
"Even with the Suffragettes, some of them had a more radical
fringe and some of them smashed up shop windows
when no significant progress was
being made with women's suffrage."
Dr. Heather Alberro is a lecturer
in global sustainable development
at Nottingham Trent University.
"So you had that aspect of Suffragettes."
"In the Civil Rights Movement, you had the
Martin Luther Kings which were kind of maybe more equivalent
to Extinction Rebellion right now, and you had the
Black Panthers who were willing
to take up armed self defense."
We definitely see some parallels with
previous social movements."
Throughout history, radical forms of protest have been used
by grassroot movements to shed light on issues when
legal and political responses were deemed inadequate.
"If we think back to historically
activist vanguards of all sorts – they tend to be more militant,
they tend to be more disruptive,
and they tend to be more violent."
"So far we're seeing really subdued
types of radical forms of activism."
Greenpeace was an early adopter
of using confrontation to spur action.
In the 1970's, activists put themselves in harm's way
to shield whales from harpoons – which eventually led
to a moratorium on most commercial whaling.
Since then, they've used unauthorized campaigns
like disrupting oil rig operations to become one of the largest
and most influential environmental organizations.
"Direct action is a really important way of getting something
to the top of the agenda, getting something in public
in the national conversation and putting pressure on –
governments and on organizations to
engage with this huge issue."
This is Emma Brown,
a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil.
"I can feel that shock that other people feel...
but at the same time, part of me thinks –
my god, that's just a bit of soup on a piece of glass
and there are 33 million people homeless now in Pakistan."
"How dare you be so upset about that?'"
"I mean, we disturb everyday life and
I do understand that people are annoyed
and I'm sorry for that. I don't want to do that, right."
This is Theodor Schnarr.
He's a PhD student and an activist from
Letzte Generation, or "last generation", a German organization
that's known for using tactics
like blocking traffic.
"I want to do my little science in my lab
and then I want to go to my garden
and spend time there with my wife. This is what I want to do."
"But our government not acting forces me into doing activism."
Uncertainty about the climate
is a real and serious source of stress.
It can feed fear, loss, anger and a sense of powerlessness,
a kin to losing a family member.
Psychiatrists are reporting that more and more
of their patients are expressing eco-anxiety.
"When I was born the world had the chance to
consequently reduce emissions."
"It would have been 2 percent per year
and we would be fine now."
"But they didn't, so we need a big change now."
Many scholars agree with the protests.
"When you're going to write about this type of action,
you're going to talk little bit about the message of the activist."
"And that's where the information
gets out to the general public."
"And it helps to frame the conversation in a way that can
be helpful for just keeping the climate crisis in the news
and getting the kind of media coverage
that these activists believe it deserves."
"Halting environmental destruction at its source
if you achieve that, that is a successful outcome."
"As well as drawing attention to an issue generally,
the symbol aspect of these tactics –
creating noise, creating disruption,
so that there is more of a focus amongst the public,
amongst governments on a given issue."
But other factors may also need to be taken into account.
"You have to talk to the community."
This is Avinash Chanchal.
He's a campaign manager for Greenpeace in India.
"You have to build the community, right?"
"You have to go to the people and make them understand
what are the issues and why we are
fighting for the cause and so on."
"So, having more engagement with the community is a must."
But this won't be the last we see of these protests.
"As we see lack of action coming from the state as well as
the business sector that is sufficient to meet the climate crisis,
we are going to see this mass mobilization."
But these protests are being met
by clamp downs around the world.
Some of the same governments that are making promises
to cut emissions are taking measures
to make climate protest difficult.
In Egypt, which just hosted the COP27 climate conference,
climate activists say they fear being arrested
just for talking to others about environmental issues.
Human Rights Watch spoke to thirteen
activists, scientists, journalists and researchers
involved in climate action in the country
and none of them wanted to be named
in fear of retribution.
The New York-based organization accused Egypt of imposing
arbitrary funding, research and registration obstacles
all in an effort to debilitate local environmental groups
and even forcing some activists into exile.
In Germany, police recently raided the homes
of eleven Letzte Generation activists
and accused them of forming a criminal organization.
"They are talking about increasing the punishments for us
but they are not talking about how to save our living, our future."
Seventeen U-S states quietly passed laws
that increased criminal penalties for trespassing, damage
and interference to sites like oil refineries and pipelines.
This started happening in 2017, the year after climate activists
began protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline – an oil pipeline
that cuts through federally protected indigenous land and
according to activists, threatens water sources in the region.
Many of the activists protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline
were held without bond for days
and reported being strip-searched for minor infractions.
In Britain, new legislation has increased the penalty for
obstructing a highway and gives police the authority
to shut down protests when they disrupt daily life.
Activists who violate this law can be given an unlimited fine,
as well as six months of imprisonment.
It's a direct response to groups that have stopped traffic or
delayed infrastructure projects to campaign for their cause.
"These attempts to clamp down
show something about the effectiveness
of the protests. Because at first they ignore you,
then they laugh at you, then they clamp down on you,
and then you win."
In India, the founder of the country's
chapter of Fridays for Future, Disha Ravi,
was charged with sedition, incitement
and international conspiracy for creating an online toolkit
to support nationwide protests.
After an exhausting legal battle,
a judge eventually ruled that the police had no right to do this.
But it's just one more example of how far authorities
in some countries are willing to go to silence activists.
"One of the things I think we're going to see out of this activism
and this wave of activism that happened prior to COP 27
is that a lot of people got the message that there was activism
taking place and people around the world
care about this and that they're willing to break the law."
"People don't like it because it is disruptive to everyday life but
unfortunately that is the only way
to break through the media and the public perception at large.
Because this problem isn't going to be solved by a few
protestors going out and demonstrating outside of Shell HQ.
It really needs broad public engagement to get that pressure."
Public engagement is what these campaigns are really after.
Climate activists agree that direct action doesn't reduce
carbon emissions or stop weather
catastrophes from happening.
But putting pressure on the government
to pass stronger policies just might.
"Coming from these very small micro protests, that seem
really kind of ridiculous when you just break them down
and look at the specifics of the action –
but the social context of it really matters."
Whatever the strategy, environmental activists feel their efforts
are keeping the issue in headlines.
And in the forefront of peoples' minds.
What do you think about these forms of protest?
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