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JK Rowling ridiculed Simply Cease Oil protesters after they lined the traditional ruins of Stonehenge with orange cornflour spray.
The local weather activists vandalised the stones on Wednesday (19 June), and demanded that the following authorities signal a legally binding treaty to section out fossil fuels by 2030.
Video footage of the incident reveals two individuals in Simply Cease Oil t-shirts, named by the group as Rajan Naidu, 73, and Niamh Lynch, 21, operating as much as the traditional construction with what seems to be repurposed hearth extinguishers stuffed with orange paint.
The Harry Potter creator wrote on X: “Public opinion’s positively transferring, largely in direction of the conclusion that you simply’re funded by Large Oil.”
“Let’s not goal anybody or something remotely liable for local weather change. Let’s assault a novel historic monument to which everybody’s vastly connected, by the way endangering uncommon lichen that solely grows there,” she added in a reply on her publish.
This incident of vandalism comes simply forward of the summer season solstice on Thursday, which is the longest day of the 12 months and due to this fact a spiritually vital day and website for pagans and druids. The stones are thought of an epicentre of particular vitality, and hundreds are anticipated to go to the positioning to rejoice the solstice.
Round 8,000 individuals gathered at Stonehenge on the solstice in 2023, and comparable numbers are anticipated this 12 months.
Lynch, a scholar from Oxford, stated: “Stonehenge at solstice is all about celebrating the pure world – however have a look at the state it’s in! All of us have a proper to dwell a life free from struggling, however continued burning of oil, coal and fuel is resulting in dying and struggling on an unparalleled scale.
“It’s time for us to consider what our civilisation will go away behind – what’s our legacy? Standing inert for generations works nicely for stones – not local weather coverage.”
Simply Cease Oil has stated in a press release that the substance used to douse the stones was washable orange cornflour.
A Simply Cease Oil spokesperson stated: “Failure to decide to defending our communities will imply Simply Cease Oil supporters, together with residents from Austria, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and Switzerland, will take part resistance this summer season, if their very own governments don’t take significant motion.
“Stone circles could be present in each a part of Europe, displaying how we’ve at all times cooperated throughout huge distances – we’re constructing on that legacy.”
“Both we finish the fossil gas period, or the fossil gas period will finish us,” Naidu stated in quotes supplied by Simply Cease Oil.
“The orange cornflour we used to create an attention grabbing spectacle will quickly wash away with the rain, however the pressing want for efficient authorities motion to mitigate the catastrophic penalties of the local weather and ecological disaster won’t. Signal the treaty!”
Prime minister Rishi Sunak and Labour chief Keir Starmer, in addition to Oasis star Liam Gallagher condemned the protest.
Sunak stated that the marketing campaign group needs to be “ashamed of their activists” whereas Starmer added, “The injury carried out to Stonehenge is outrageous. Simply Cease Oil are pathetic. These accountable should face the complete drive of the regulation.”
Gallagher posted on social media, warning: “Don’t f*** with the stones man, they’ve mystical powers. Hope all of them get up tmoz and are all orange toads.”
Each activists have been arrested by the Wiltshire police “on suspicion of damaging the traditional monument”.
Stonehenge continues to stay open to the general public.
English Heritage stated consultants have been assessing the “extent of the injury” to the stones, which they describe as maybe the world’s most well-known prehistoric monument.
A spokesperson stated: “Orange powdered paint has been thrown at quite a lot of the stones at Stonehenge. Clearly that is extraordinarily upsetting, and our curators are investigating the extent of the injury. Stonehenge stays open to the general public.”