Opinion: Climate change protestors have been vandalizing famous works of art to promote their organizations’ agendas. The issue is this doesn’t solve climate change and takes away from real efforts.

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In the past few weeks, climate change organizations have targeted famous works of art around Europe to spread their message.

The attacks first started with Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” on Oct 14. Two protestors threw tomato soup at the painting before gluing their hands to the wall. The protestors are members of the British organization Just Stop Oil, a group attempting to stop the UK from licensing the use of fossil fuels.

Then just over a week later, additional protestors threw mashed potatoes at Monet’s “Les Meules” (Haystacks) Oct. 21. These protestors also then glued their hands to the wall. Despite the similarities in tactics, these protests were conducted by different groups. The protestors that targeted Monet’s painting were members of the Letzte Generation (Last Generation), a German-based organization.

But it didn’t stop there; on Oct. 27, a protestor glued his head to Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring.” The Dutch police made three arrests in relation to the protest, all of whom were wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts.

I fully support the efforts of climate change organizations and the activists who work hard to stop the effects of global warming and other long-lasting damages we’ve imposed on the planet. The actions of the organizations and activists responsible for the art attacks, however, make a mockery of the true efforts and fail to accomplish anything tangible.

By targeting these extremely well-known pieces, protestors are able to gather media attention which to some degree allows these organizations to share their messages. But, it ends up generating so much negative publicity that people fail to take real climate change protests seriously. The extensive media coverage also creates the notion that in order to get your message across, you have to target something even bigger than the last person. You have to do something more extreme.

One of the protestors responsible for throwing tomato soup on the Gogh painting, Phoebe Plummer, recently did an interview with NPR and in response to being asked why they picked that particular painting they responded, “It’s a beautiful work of art and I think a lot of people, when they saw us, had feelings of shock or horror or outrage because they saw something beautiful and valuable and they thought it was being damaged or destroyed. But, you know, where is that emotional response when it’s our planet and our people that are being destroyed.”

They were right; there was plenty of shock and horror. Tracy Chevalier, author of “A Girl with a Pearl Earring: A Novel,” said in response to the Vermeer painting, “For me, seeing that painting vandalized is like watching a daughter being attacked. I’m very relieved she’s protected by glass.”

 But Plummer’s premise that people are not reacting to climate change simply isn’t true. People can be shocked and horrified at iconic paintings potentially being destroyed as much as they can be at what climate change is doing to the environment and what lawmakers aren’t doing to solve it.

In a study done by Yale and George Mason University last year, they found 70% of Americans are worried about climate change, and 47% describe themselves as “angry” about it.

Just because these people are angry about it doesn’t mean they resort to extreme measures. There are countless petitions, sit-ins, donations and ways to shop and live more eco-friendly. Now, I understand that participating in any of these efforts may seem like results aren’t happening, and to some degree it’s true. However, these acts for media attention aren’t causing results either.

I’d be really disappointed the day I open the news to find out my favorite painting or work of art has been destroyed. I’m just as disappointed every time world leaders meet in an attempt to reduce their carbon footprint; they speak big promises but present empty hands.

If we want to stop climate change in hopes of saving what we have left, we do need to make an effort. But it must be one that achieves real change without the hidden human selfishness and greed behind it.