Climate protestors dump red powder on Constitution at National Archives Building - KFDM-TV News
Climate protestors dump red powder on Constitution at National Archives Building
WASHINGTON (TND) — Climate protestors poured red powder on the case holding the U.S. Constitution Wednesday at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.
Donald Sepeda and Jackson Green, members of the Declare Emergency civil disobedience group, reportedly performed the stunt to direct attention toward the federal government’s purported theft of environmental constitutional rights.
This nonviolent civil disobedience action was taken on Valentine’s Day out of love and respect for our fellow citizens whose constitutional rights to fresh air, clean water and healthy food are currently being stolen by our government’s great failure to tell the truth about the pending Earth’s climate system collapse,” Declare Emergency explained to 7News DC.
Officers arrested the protestors within minutes.
“The National Archives Rotunda is the sanctuary for our nation’s founding documents. They are here for all Americans to view and understand the principles of our nation,” U.S. Archivist Dr. Colleen Shogan said. “We take such vandalism very seriously and we will insist that the perpetrators be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
The Constitution was unaffected by the powder, although the rotunda will remain closed Thursday for a cleaning.
Declare Emergency vandalized a National Gallery of Art exhibit in April when two of its members smeared paint on a 19th-century Edgar Degas statue. They sought to pressure President Joe Biden into declaring a climate emergency and ceasing fossil fuel production on federal and indigenous lands.
This little dancer is protected in her climate-controlled box, but people, animals, and ecosystems currently struggling and dying in extreme weather events are not,” one of the disruptors, Joanna Smith, remarked. “Ordinary people in great numbers must join us in our call for these actions. We will not be condemned to collapse.”
A day earlier, the group blocked rush-hour traffic on the George Washington Parkway in Virginia. Declare Emergency argued its “disciplined” and “protracted” roadblock was the best way to create systematic change.
The group has also impeded traffic on I-395 and I-495, leading to several of its members landing in jail. One of the convicted disruptors, Michelle Wehner, denounced Washington, D.C.’s Superior Court for its perceived complicity in abandoning Americans.
“Our trial went as expected. It’s a demonstration that the judiciary is complicit in the betrayal of the American people,” Wehner claimed. “While our necessity defense was accepted by Judge Mulkey, after hearing our testimonies, she ruled that our defense did not meet the three criteria necessary for an acquittal. Well, you can’t imprison a flood, you can’t probation a heatwave, and you can’t fine a wildfire.”
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”