Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters have spray-painted Charles Darwin’s grave in Westminster Abbey to highlight rising global temperatures, the climate protest group has said.
The slogan “1.5 is dead” was sprayed in chalk paint on the gravestone of the 19th-century naturalist – widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology – at about 9.30am on Monday.
Last year was the first time global temperatures passed the threshold of 1.5C above their pre-industrial level.
Staying below that mark was one of the key commitments of the global Paris Climate Treaty which countries agreed to in 2015, in a bid to avert the most dangerous impacts of climate change.
JSO said Alyson Lee, 66, a retired teaching assistant from Derby, and Di Bligh, a 77-year-old former chief executive of Reading Council, from Rode, were involved in the protest.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed two women were arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage “with what is believed to be powdered paint at Westminster Abbey”.
Officers led two women away from the abbey after the protest.
Ms Lee said ministers are “are not doing enough [on climate change].”
Ms Bligh told the Press Association they had done it “because there’s no hope for the world, really” and said they chose Darwin’s grave because, as a “good scientist”, he would support their aims and “would be as upset as us with the government for ignoring the science”.
According to JSO, the two supporters were heard saying: “2024 was the hottest year on record. We have passed the 1.5 degree threshold that was supposed to keep us safe.
“Millions are being displaced, California is on fire and we have lost three quarters of all wildlife since the 1970s. Darwin would be turning in his grave to know we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction.
“The government’s plans will take us to over three degrees of warming. This will destroy everything we love. World leaders must stop burning oil, gas and coal by 2030.”
JSO reported that Ms Lee said Earth is “heading for over three degrees of warming”, which she called a “rapidly accelerating crisis”.
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In the future, she warned “huge parts of the world will become unable to support life, resulting in millions of refugees, social collapse and extinction for countless species”.
A spokesperson for the church confirmed orange paint had been sprayed onto the gravestone, but they do not think there will be any permanent damage and its doors remain open for worshippers and visitors.
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Darwin, a naturalist, geologist, and biologist, who lived from 1809 until 1882, was best known for his contributions to evolutionary biology.
His key theory, that humans shared a common ancestor with apes, was advanced in his work titled On the Origin of Species, which was published in 1859.
