Rethinking Lifestyle

Others tossed some mashed potatoes on a Monet.

Some people are even gluing themselves to walls.

What is going on???

The protesters are part of a movement by environmental groups demanding that we stop new fossil fuel extraction projects. Human species have never lived on this planet with the current amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. The risk of increased CO2 being unpredictable weather patterns, more intense heat waves, floods, droughts, and storms, leading to the suffering of millions of the most vulnerable people on the planet.

To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, there’s an effort to keep global temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and these protesters are alerting us to how well (or how poorly) we are doing.

Are these extreme protests working?

Maybe a better question to first ask is: “Are other avenues working? Ones more traditional and reasonable?”

Consider that if we dig up all the fossil fuels currently approved for extraction, staying within 1.5 degrees planetary warming will be impossible. Add in the fact that governments around the world keep approving new fossil fuel extraction projects and pipelines, and these protesters have come to the conclusion that traditional, more reasonable avenues for change will not be enough.

Thus, they are resorting to more and more extreme tactics.

But by doing so, are they hurting their cause? Will people will be turned off from addressing climate change by them vandalizing artwork?

Maybe. But probably not.

First of all, the protesters are picking pieces of art they know are encased in glass, so any damage is occurring to the frame and not the painting.

Secondly, my hunch is that those who are most likely to be repulsed by such actions probably aren’t too concerned about climate change anyways.

Rather, I think the protests are meant for the rest of us to ask ourselves other, more important questions:

“What do we care about more? Art? Or the Earth? Can it be both?”

“If I’m upset at the people vandalizing art work, am I just as upset at people vandalizing our planet?”

“If we think we should protect and enjoy sacred pieces of art, shouldn’t we extend similar protections to the environment?”

“Have these protests made me wonder about what I am doing to address the reality of climate change on the most vulnerable people in our world?”

These are questions we need to be asking, and acting upon. And if we don’t? Well, then the questions, decisions, emotions, and reality of living on a warming planet will make the opinions about throwing a can of soup on some artwork, irrelevant.