What is the difference between corn starch and spray paint? Can it be removed from Stonehenge?
A day before hordes of people are set to descend on Stonehenge, two climate activists sprayed the iconic monument with orange paint. Can it be removed?
Two climate activists from Just Stop Oil sprayed Stonehenge with an “orange powder paint” on Wednesday. The vandalism comes a day before hordes of people will make a pilgrimage to the iconic stone age megalithic monument for the summer solstice.
The members of the protest group behind the action “are demanding that the incoming UK government commit to working with other governments to agree an equitable plan to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030,” according to a statement released by Just Stop Oil. The two men; Niamh Lynch, 21, a Student from Oxford, and Rajan Naidu, 73, from Birmingham, were arrested by Wiltshire Police at the UNESCO World Heritage site.
What is the difference between corn starch and spray paint? Can it be removed from Stonehenge?
The two climate activists managed to spray part of the ancient monument with a powder paint before members of the public pulled them away and took the paint cannisters away from them. The substance they used was made of “orange cornflour” according to the protesters.
Reaction to what the activists intented to be “an eye-catching spectacle” drew outrage from the Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer and the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who called the protest group “a disgrace” on social media. However, Just Stop Oil responded to Sunak’s X post with “Relax lad. The cornstarch will wash off even quicker than you’ll be out of number 10. Which is saying something.”
Unlike regular spray paint that uses toxic solvents and chemicals that require aggressive measures to remove, this cornstarch-based paint is non-toxic and will wash away with the next rainfall.
“The orange cornflour we used to create an eye-catching spectacle will soon wash away with the rain, but the urgent need for effective government action to mitigate the catastrophic consequences of the climate and ecological crisis will not,” Naidu said in a statement. “Either we end the fossil fuel era, or the fossil fuel era will end us.”
“Stonehenge at solstice is all about celebrating the natural world – but look at the state it’s in! We all have a right to live a life free from suffering, but continued burning of oil, coal and gas is leading to death and suffering on an unparalleled scale,” said Lynch. “It’s time for us to think about what our civilization will leave behind – what is our legacy?”