Climate protesters have spray-painted Charles Darwin’s grave in Westminster Abbey.
Two women were arrested: Alyson Lee, 66, a retired teaching assistant from Derby, and Di Bligh, a 77-year-old former chief executive of Reading Council from Rode.
“We’ve done it on Darwin’s grave specifically because he would be turning in that grave because of the sixth mass extinction taking place now”, said Di Bligh.
“I believe he would approve because he was a good scientist and he would be following the science, and he would be as upset as us with the government for ignoring the science”, completed Alyson Lee.
Meanwhile, Westminster Abbey said it was taking “immediate action” to clean the paint off the grave. It will not be permanently damaged.
Climate protest group Just Stop Oil, known as JSO, claimed the act, saying that two of its supporters spray-painted “1.5 is dead” on Darwin’s grave with chalk paint.
“Without real action, words are useless – you cannot negotiate with the laws of physics”, commented JSO.
This happened directly after Europe’s climate monitor announced that the last two years saw average global temperatures exceed the critical 1.5C warming limit for the first time in recorded history, and in the midst of the horrific California fires.
A fairly new organization, founded in 2022, JSO has encouraged and staged multiple climate-related demonstrations, particularly in Britain.
They have drawn public disapproval for splattering Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” and spraying Stonehenge orange.
In retaliation, JSO and its supporters have accused the UK legal system of sentencing its activists with excessive harshness.
Alyson Lee and Diane Bligh were charge with criminal damage and then bailed to appear at Westminster magistrates’ court on February 11 and 12, reports the BBC.
