Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler criticised activists who glued themselves to a dinosaur skeleton at the natural history museum in Vienna to demand an end to Austria’s fossil path and a speed limit.
Criticism is increasing towards climate activists who have recently upped the ante by carrying out protest actions targeting valuable artworks and museum displays to draw attention to their cause.
“I am a minister, and in this position, I do not want to tell civil society what forms of action to choose,” Gewessler told Puls24.
“I can only say that in my time in civil society, I have chosen other forms of protest,” she added, referring to her leading role at the environmental NGO Global 2000 Gewessler before she went into politics and took on ministership.
While it was necessary to draw attention to “the urgency of the problem”, it is “also important not to lose people on the way to the solution,” she highlighted.
The activists, for their part, fear that society is heading towards “climate hell”.
The “climate collapse has long since begun. Our governments just can’t stop pouring oil on the fire,” one of them told APA.
A previous attempt by activists to glue themselves to an exhibit was prevented in September.
(Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | EURACTIV.de)
Source: euractiv.com
