Climate activists in Italy stained the fountain water at Rome’s Spanish Steps black this Saturday in a protest they say evoked the “end of the world.”
Three activists from the Last Generation climate change organization poured a vegetable carbon liquid into the historic 17th-century fountain, known to the Romans as La Barcaccia, before being led away by police.
The boat-shaped fountain was designed by Italian sculptor Pietro Bernini. According to popular lore, the boat was inspired by the 1598 discovery of a boat in the square after it was washed away in a flood on the Tiber River, Last Generation said.
Turning the water black “predicts the ‘end of the world’ scenario we are heading towards as we step further and further on the accelerator: drought alternating with devastating floods that will wipe out life on Earth combined with heat waves,” the organization says in a statement.
Last Generation began organizing peaceful but disruptive protests in Italy before the election last year, urging politicians to make climate change their priority.
The protests in Italy are part of a series of actions across Europe to draw attention to climate change.
Activists threw soup, cake, mashed potatoes or washable paint at historical and cultural sites and works of art in museums.
Source: DN
