The Tour de France, Roland-Garros, Formula 1… In recent months, sports competitions have been targeted by environmental activists who intend to take advantage of the resonance of these events to warn of the climate danger. New example Monday in England, when members of the group “Just Stop Oil” interrupted a match of the world snooker championships in Sheffield by spilling an orange powder on the billiard table.
They burst into the room shortly after a game started, and then one of them climbed onto one of the pool tables. The other activist, who was about to do the same on another table where a second match was being played, was prevented from doing so by the referee. “They are calling on the government to stop all new fossil fuel projects and calling on UK sporting institutions to join the civil resistance against the government’s genocidal policies,” the group said in a statement.
“Just Stop Oil” has been multiplying for months the actions punch to demand the abandonment of the exploration of fossil fuels in the United Kingdom. It calls for “an indefinite campaign of civil resistance” from 24 April. Six of its activists were sentenced at the end of March to suspended prison sentences or community service for having disrupted the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Silverstone last year.
In February five other activists who had glued themselves to the frame of a painting representing the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci at the Royal Academy of Arts were sentenced to a fine. Last year, activists attacked Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”, exhibited at the National Gallery in London, by spraying the work, protected by a window, with tomato soup.