Climate protesters douse Spain’s parliament in red liquid, again

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Climate activists doused Spain’s parliament in red liquid on Thursday, protesting the trial of 15 other activists who carried out a similar protest last year.

Last April, just days after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report warning that countries needed to act “now or never” to limit devastating climate change, members of the Scientific Rebellion hurled red liquid at the Spanish parliament.

The activists wanted it to look like they were throwing blood to emphasize “the criminal dimension of government inaction.” However, Scientific Rebellion said the biodegradable liquid could be washed off with water.

Now, 15 of the activists involved face charges of criminal damage and public disorder.

Scientific Rebellion argued that charging activists with serious crimes is an “unprecedented and unjustifiable criminalization of science.”

This is compounded by the recent discovery of a police officer who was caught infiltrating non-violent ecological movements in Spain, the organization said in a statement.

Images from Spanish broadcaster RTVE show police officers detaining several protestors on Thursday.

Scientific Rebellion has not commented on the second round of vandalism of the Spanish parliament. However, the organization organized a protest in the same location on Thursday evening.

Meanwhile, one of the academics facing charges for last April’s protest spoke to the media after leaving the courthouse.

“I would do the same thing a thousand times over,” said Belen Diaz Collante, an environmental scientist. “The time for approved protests is over … those of us who understand that what’s happening is an urgent need to keep scaling up our actions.”