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Climate change hysteria swept through Europe on Saturday as hundreds of eco-fanatics blocked aircraft from leaving Amsterdam for hours by sitting in front of the wheels, while Spanish zealots glued themselves to the frames of two Francisco de Goya paintings in a Madrid museum. Â
Environmental activists wearing white overalls stormed an area holding private jets at Schiphol Airport, located southwest of the capital, before military police moved in and were seen taking dozens of the protesters away in buses.Â
More than 100 activists were arrested, national broadcaster NOS said, but no delays to commercial flights were reported.
The protest was part of a day of demonstrations in and around the air hub organised by Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion in the build-up to the COP27 climate talks in Egypt.Â
‘We want fewer flights, more trains and a ban on unnecessary short-haul flights and private jets,’ Greenpeace Netherlands campaign leader Dewi Zloch said.Â
The environmental group says Schiphol is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the Netherlands, emitting 12 billion kilograms annually.Â
Hundreds of other demonstrators in and around the airport’s main hall carried signs saying ‘Restrict Aviation’ and ‘More Trains’.Â
Responding to the protest, Schiphol said it aims to become an emissions-free airport by 2030 and supports targets for the aviation industry to reach net zero emissions by 2050.Â
Military police tasked with airport security said in a statement they had ‘made a number of detentions of persons who were on airport property without being allowed’.Â
The Dutch government announced plans in June for a cap on annual passengers at the airport at 440,000, around 11 per cent below 2019 levels, citing air pollution and climate concerns.Â
Transportation Minister Mark Harbers told parliament last month his office could not control growing private jet traffic and the government is considering whether to include the issue in its climate policy.Â
In a separate protest, two female activists glued themselves to the frames of two paintings by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya at Madrid’s Prado Museum.
Environmental activists wearing white overalls stormed an area holding private jets at Schiphol Airport, located southwest of the capital, before military police moved in and were seen taking dozens of the protesters away in buses
Two female activists glued themselves to the frames of two paintings by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya at Madrid’s Prado Museum
More than 100 activists were arrested, national broadcaster NOS said, but no delays to commercial flights were reported
The protest was part of a day of demonstrations in and around the air hub organised by Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion in the build-up to the COP27 climate talks in Egypt
The environmental group says Schiphol is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the Netherlands, emitting 12 billion kilograms annually
Hundreds of other demonstrators in and around the airport’s main hall carried signs saying ‘Restrict Aviation’ and ‘More Trains’
Responding to the protest, Schiphol said it aims to become an emissions-free airport by 2030 and supports targets for the aviation industry to reach net zero emissions by 2050
The pair scrawled the message +1.5 degrees Celsius between the paintings they targeted – the Naked Maja and the Clothed Maja – a reference to the damaging differences to the planet which will be seen at two degrees as opposed to 1.5.
Reports suggested that police arrived and vacated the room, but no updates on the protesters has yet been given.Â
They identified themselves as belonging to Futuro Vegetal, which literally means Vegetable Future and is a movement linked to Extinction Rebellion Spain.
Futuro Vegetal said in a tweet showing the women stuck to the paintings: ‘We have stuck ourselves to Goya’s Mijas in the Prado Museum.
‘Last week the United Nations recognised the impossibility of limiting global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels in line with the Paris Agreement.’
The group added that not sticking to the limit will lead to more extreme weather such as drought, endangering the farming and food industries.Â
It said: ‘We need change now. We need a plant-based future [literal translation: Vegetable future]’.
Video footage from the scene appears to show museum staff attempting to stop bystanders filming the protest.Â
The two young women are raising awareness of the importance of sticking to the 1.5C limit to global warming, agreed at the Paris summit
One of the pictures targeted was Clothed Maja by Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes
The second picture targeted was the Naked Maja by Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes
Meanwhile in the Netherlands a large group of protesters gathered in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport protesting the environmental impact of the aviation industry
A woman wearing a staff lanyard could be heard saying ‘no photos, please’ and seemed to say police had been called.Â
Images showed one young woman glue herself to one of the pair of paintings first, while the second wrote their 1.5C message on the wall between them. She then was given the glue by the first activist and glued herself to the second frame.
No damage appears to have been done to either painting.Â
Hundreds of climate protesters also blocked private jets from leaving Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Saturday in a demonstration on the eve of the Cop27 UN climate meeting in Egypt.
Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion protesters sat around private jets to prevent them from leaving and others rode bicycles around the planes.
Dewi Zloch of Greenpeace Netherlands said the activists want ‘fewer flights, more trains and a ban on unnecessary short-haul flights and private jets’.
Military police said they arrested a number of protesters for being on the airport’s grounds without authorisation.
Staff asked people not to film or take photographs of the protesters after they had glued themselves down
Protesters from Extinction Rebellion perform outside the Schiphol Airport control tower on Saturday
Protesters gathered inside Schiphol airport as well as outside in a bid to stop flights from leaving
Environmental protesters hold signs at the Dutch airport on the eve of Cop27
Responding on Friday to an open letter from Greenpeace, Schiphol’s new chief executive Ruud Sondag said the airport is targeting ’emissions-free airports by 2030 and net climate-neutral aviation by 2050. And we have an duty to lead the way in that’, but conceded it needed to happen faster.
More than 120 world leaders will attend this year’s UN climate talks at the Red Sea coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh starting on Sunday.
Issues up for discussion at the November 6-18 talks include further cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting financial aid for poor countries struggling with the impacts of climate change.
The latest museum protest follows close on the heels of an incident last month in which activists from Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London.
Days later climate activists threw mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting in Germany.
Most recently on Friday a group of activists threw pea soup onto a Vincent van Gogh masterpiece in Rome, in a protest they warned will continue until more attention was paid to climate change.
‘The Sower’, an 1888 painting by the Dutch artist depicting a farmer sowing his land under a dominating sun, was exhibited behind glass and undamaged.
Security intervened immediately and removed the protesters kneeling in front of ‘The Sower’ at the Palazzo Bonaparte. Protesters from the same group, the Last Generation, earlier blocked a highway near Rome.
The climate activists from Last Generation called their protest ‘a desperate and scientifically grounded cry that cannot be understood as mere vandalism’.
‘Non-violent direct actions will continue until citizens get answers from their government on the demands to stop gas and coal and to invest in at least 20 GW of renewables,’ they said in a statement.
Video taken from inside a museum gallery crowded with visitors show two young women throwing a liquid substance onto the painting.
They and a third woman are then seen gluing their hands to the wall as shouting erupts in the room.
Last month, a pair of demonstrators glued themselves to the floor after throwing soup on Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ at the National Gallery in London
One of the protestors said after the stunt: ‘What is worth more, art or life?’ before they glued themselves to the wallÂ
The £76 million piece of art was ‘unharmed’ during the climate demonstration on October 14
They have targeted masterpieces such as the ‘Mona Lisa’ by Leonardo da Vinci in the Louvre in Paris or ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ by Johannes Vermeer at The Hague’s Mauritshuis museum.
In October, the group Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup over Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ at London’s National Gallery.
All of those paintings were covered by glass and were undamaged.
In other recent action in the UK eco-group Just Stop Oil spent every day in October blocking various roads around the capital as they demanded an end to any new sources of fossil fuels.
On the final day of action activists also sprayed bright orange paint on MI5’s headquarters, the Bank of England and News Corp offices.
The MI5 building was one of four chosen by the group that they say represent the pillars that support and maintain the power of the fossil fuel economy – government, security, finance and media.
Later, activists sat in the middle of the road on Victoria Street outside the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Police asked the public to stop intervening in protests, such as by trying to remove protesters from roads, as it could hamper efforts to prosecute offenders.
But angry members of the public continued to do so in spite of the warnings.Â
One man attempted to wrest a fire extinguisher, being used to spray paint over the MI5 building, from a protester – resulting in them both becoming covered in paint.Â
Video captured the moment the furious passer-by jostled with the climate activist for control of the device and sprayed them with paint as they doused the front of the MI5 building on Marsham Street in Westminster
Police intervened after Tez Burns, 34, sprayed orange paint on the exterior of the MI5 building on Marsham Street earlier today
The Bank of England on Threadneedle Street in the City of London was also targeted on the group’s final day of mayhemÂ
The headquarters of News Corp – which owns publications including The Sun, The Times and TalkTV – in London Bridge was also targeted by the group. It is the second time the building has been vandalised this year by eco activistsÂ
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