Two protestors, affiliated with JustStopOil, attacked Stonehenge with orange spray.
On Wednesday, two protestors arrived at Stonehenge and started spraying an orange substance on the monument, a video posted by them on X shows. They were soon stopped by two bystanders, but not before they had significantly covered the site with the paint.
The two protestors – 21-year-old Niamh Lynch and 73-year-old Rajan Naidu – are formally associated with the climate group JustStopOil. Both protestors were soon arrested. JustStopOil later released a statement, asking the UK government to sign a legally binding treaty to end the use of fossil fuels by 2030. Rajan Naidu issued a similar statement, saying: “Either we end the fossil fuel era, or the fossil fuel era will end us. Just as fifty years ago, when the world used international treaties to defuse the threats posed by nuclear weapons, today the world needs a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to phase out fossil fuels and to support dependent economies, workers and communities to move away from oil, gas and coal.”
The immediate reaction to the incident has been overwhelmingly negative. British prime minister Rishi Sunak called it a “disgraceful act of vandalism”. He was surprisingly supported by his chief electoral rival, Keith Starmer.
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JustStopOil has gained notoriety for starting, and being at the forefront of, the trend of attacking art and heritage sites to gain attention toward climate issues. The timing of the latest attack also seemed to be calculated; it was a few days before the UK elections and just 1 day before the Summer Solstice when huge numbers of tourists arrived at the location. However, Naidu maintained that the spray was only orange-dyed cornflour and would wash away with the first rain.
