Activists from the climate group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) today poured a black liquid into the Bernini Fountain in Piazza Navona in the heart of Rome. They wanted to “set an example for the black future that awaits mankind,” they said. When police arrived, the four activists were removed and taken away, Italian media reported.
Police found that climate activists poured diluted biochar into the basin of Bernini’s “Fountain of the Four Rivers,” one of Rome’s most popular monuments. “Our future is as black as this water: difficult years lie ahead, but if we don’t reduce emissions to zero immediately, they will be terrible,” the activists said.
Roman mayor Roberto Gualtieri condemned the action. “This is another senseless act of defacing monuments in Rome. You don’t save the environment by jeopardizing artistic heritage,” Gualtieri wrote on Twitter.
