After Van Gogh’s soup on sunflowers and the glue on Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, the members of the environmental group Just Stop Oil are turning to the “Magna Carta”. Two octogenarians damaged this Friday the window which protects a copy of what is considered a founding text of modern democracy, exhibited at the British Library in London.
A video broadcast by the group, accustomed to spectacular actions, shows the two ladies attacking the thick glass by hitting a chisel with a hammer. The British Library holds two of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta, a 1215 text establishing that the king and his government are not above the law.
Hands stuck together and the end of fossil fuels
“This famous document deals with the rule of law, and opposition to the abuse of power. Our government is breaking its own laws,” says Judy Bruce, 85. “I am a Christian and I am forced to do everything I can do to alleviate the terrible suffering that is happening and is already here,” continues the Reverend Sue Parfitt, 82 years old.
According to Just Stop Oil, which is campaigning for the government to establish a plan to end the use of fossil fuels by 2030, the two octogenarians then stuck their hands together.
Fight against global warming
Quoted in a press release, Judy Bruce declared that “400 renowned scientists, contributors to the IPCC reports, say that we are ‘deplorably unprepared’ for what is coming: 2.5°C or more of warming compared to pre-industrial levels”. The activist was referring to a recent poll by Guardian according to which almost 80% of the scientists who responded expect such warming, which exceeds the target of the Paris agreement.
The British Library announced without further details on X (formerly Twitter) the closure of the “treasure gallery” where the Magna Carta is exhibited. The Magna Carta was signed on June 15, 1215 by the King of England John Lackland under pressure from rebel barons keen to limit royal arbitrariness.
It inspired numerous legal texts including the Petition for Rights of 1628, the Constitution of the United States of 1787 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.