On Sunday, Rome’s historic Trevi Fountain became the focal point of a protest when climate activists turned its water black to draw attention to the fossil fuel industry.
The activist group Ultima Generazione reported that eight participants from their “Let’s not pay for fossil” campaign poured “vegetable charcoal” into the fountain’s water.
Demonstrators called for an “immediate stop” to fossil fuel subsidies. Videos of the event show the protesters jumping into the fountain and emptying buckets of the black substance into the water while holding anti-fossil fuel signs for the large crowd that had assembled.
In a press release following the protest, Ultima Generazione stated that police “intervened immediately” and detained the activists within 15 minutes.
The group explained that the demonstration was prompted by the growing impacts of climate change, particularly the recent floods that severely affected northern Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region.
According to the group, the floods resulted in at least 14 deaths and forced thousands to evacuate their homes.
The group cited a recent Bank of Italy study indicating that approximately a quarter of all homes in Italy are at risk of flooding, with estimated annual damage totaling around 3 billion euros.
One of the protesters, 19-year-old Mattia, explained in the release that her participation was driven by the “horrible tragedy” of the floods.
She described the situation as a “warning of the dark future that awaits humanity, marked by alternating droughts and increasingly frequent and violent floods.”
She emphasized that the only way to prevent such future scenarios is to halt emissions from fossil fuels, criticizing the government for continuing to fund the fossil fuel industry with tens of billions of euros each year.
The protest was also linked to a recent announcement by the World Meteorological Organization, which reported that the planet is now more likely than ever to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming compared to pre-industrial times within the next five years.
This threshold, long warned about by scientists, could lead to more frequent and severe heat waves, droughts, and floods.
Ultima Generazione asserted that their protest caused “no damage” to the fountain, nor to previous protest sites. However, they noted that the real damage lies in the “cultural heritage in Emilia-Romagna.”
