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A video shared by the official X handle of the movement @JustStop_Oil with the caption, “JUST STOP OIL PAINT PRIVATE JETS HOURS AFTER TAYLOR SWIFT’S LANDS. Jennifer and Cole cut the fence into the private airfield at Stansted where @taylorswift13’s jet is parked, demanding an emergency treaty to end fossil fuels by 2030” is doing the rounds of social media with over 2.2 million views. Wondering what it is all about?
On Thursday morning, some environmental activists, part of the “Just Stop Oil” movement, went to London Stansted Airport early and spray painted several private jets orange after mistaking them to be owned by Taylor Swift. In fact, two of them broke through the airport fence and defaced the jets, reported Huffington Post.
Later, the suspects were arrested for alleged criminal damage and interfering with national infrastructure.
Watch the video here:
One of the protesters, Cole Macdonald, explained to Huffington Post, “We’re living in two worlds: one where billionaires live in luxury, able to fly in private jets away from the other, where unliveable conditions are being imposed on countless millions. Meanwhile, this system that is allowing extreme wealth to be accrued by a few, to the detriment of everyone else, is destroying the conditions necessary to support human life in a rapidly accelerating never-ending ‘cruel summer’.”
The protest follows recent criticism of Swift’s use of private jets, with many people saying she doesn’t seem to realise how much CO2 is released each time she flies.
According to a BBC report, Just Stop Oil (JSO) wants the UK to stop approving new fossil fuel projects because they cause climate change. In July 2023, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced 100 new North Sea licenses, which JSO opposed. The JSO says they’ll stop protesting when the government stops making fossil fuels. JSO works with other groups like Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain.
They have disrupted events like Les Miserables and BBC Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. They also caused damage at the National Gallery, throwing tomato soup on Vincent Van Gogh’s painting ‘Sunflowers’ and breaking the protective glass around Diego Velazquez’s painting Rokeby Venus.
