Just Stop Oil Stonehenge Protest

Submission 3,284

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Overview

Just Stop Oil Stonehenge Protest refers to Just Stop Oil (JSO) climate activists spraying water-soluble orange cornstarch paint on England's neolithic Stonehenge monument. The incident took place in late June 2024 as part of a series of demonstrations by Just Stop Oil activists in which they threw paint or attempted to damage famous art and monuments as a means of drawing attention to Earth's climate crisis. The demonstration at Stonehenge garnered significant press coverage around the world, drawing backlash from many who disagreed with JSO's actions, while some supported the move for drawing attention to climate change.

Background

On June 19th, 2024, two Just Stop Oil activists used fire extinguishers to spray orange cornstarch onto England's Stonehenge monument. They can be seen spraying the rocks even as bystanders attempt to pull them away in a video posted by Just Stop Oil's official X^[1] account on the same date, gathering over 10 million views and 4,000 likes in two days (seen below).

Online Reactions

News about Just Stop Oil's Stonehenge action was shared to the subreddits /r/UnitedKingdom^[2] and /r/WitchesVsPatriarchy^[3] on June 19th, 2024, in posts that gathered over 3,000 and 1,000 likes, respectively, in two days.

The action was criticized strongly by many U.K. politicians and organizations, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who called the demonstration a "disgraceful act of vandalism," and Labour MP Kier Starmer^[4] who called it "outrageous" (seen below).

Some X users accused Just Stop Oil of being a psyop intended to turn public opinion against climate activism, with X user @CountDankulaTV's^[5] post on June 19th gathering over 190,000 likes in two days (seen below).

Other internet users had more favorable reactions to the protest, with many pointing out that the activists used non-permanent paint and that Just Stop Oil had a reputation for conducting demonstrations that only seemed to damage public goods without actually doing so.^[6]

On June 19th, 2024, X^[7] user @SeaSpitfires posted a thread discussing Stonehenge's history, explaining that while Just Stop Oil's demonstration may be upsetting to some, it will supposedly have no longstanding impact on the monument's longevity.

X^[8] user @terryfuck45 posted a joke equating the Stonehenge incident to "fifteen 9/11s," while X^[9] user @anyamrch joked about Just Stop Oil activists in Eastern Europe being more extreme with their demonstrations (referencing actions during the ongoing war with Russia) than the ones in the West (seen below).