Climate change activists spray red paint at UK Treasury from fire engine

FAN Editor
Extinction Rebellion protest outside the Treasury building in London
Extinction Rebellion protestors demonstrate outside the Treasury building in London, Britain October 3, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

October 3, 2019

By Estelle Shirbon

LONDON (Reuters) – Climate change activists used a fire engine to spray red paint at the facade of the British finance ministry on Thursday.

The activists drove up to the British Treasury in a fire engine and sprayed red paint through the hose onto the building, though at one point they lost control of the hose.

After the stunt, four activists stood atop the fire engine which had a banner saying “Stop funding climate death.” The steps of the Treasury were soaked in red paint.

Extinction Rebellion said its activists had sprayed 1,800 liters of fake blood at the Treasury. The activists also sprayed the slogan “Stop funding climate death” on the walls of the building.

“The Treasury has been frustrating efforts by other government departments to take action against climate change because it cares only about economic growth,” one of the activists, named Ben, told Reuters.

“It doesn’t see that eternal economic growth leads to climate death,” Ben said. “The red symbolizes the people dying now in the global south and also the people who are going to start dying from climate change all around the world if we do nothing.”

The Extinction Rebellion group disrupted London with 11 days of protests in April that it cast as the biggest act of civil disobedience in recent British history. Iconic locations were blocked, the Shell building defaced, trains stopped and Goldman Sachs targeted.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; writing by Guy Faulconbridge. Editing by Andrew MacAskill)

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