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Climate Change

21st Oct 2022

Climate activists glue themselves to floor of car dealership – but complain when staff turn off the lights and go home

Charlie Herbert

Climate activists glue themselves to floor of Volkswagen dealership

The protestors claim they were denied a ‘bowl to urinate and defecate in’

Climate activists were left in a sticky situation after deciding to glue themselves to the floor of a Volkswagen dealership.

Members of Scientist Rebellion, who are a collection of academics affiliated with Extinction Rebellion, stuck themselves to the concrete floor of the Porsche pavilion at Autostadt and the Volkswagen luxury cars exhibit in Wolfsburg, Germany.

But they perhaps didn’t get the response they were looking for from workers at the facility come the end of the day.

When it was time for staff to go home, they simply switched off the lights and the heating and left the scientists on their own.

One of the protestors also claims the workers denied their request for a “bowl to urinate and defecate in.”

Gianluca Grimalda took to Twitter to complain about how staff at the car manufacturer didn’t do anything to help them.

He said: “They refused our request to provide us with a bowl to urinate and defecate in a decent manner while we are glued, and have turned off the heating.”

Some of the activists apparently went on hunger strike until their demands were met.

Scientist Rebellion say that they targeted the Volkswagen dealership in Germany because the the country’s national economy has “benefited much more than others from burning fossil fuels and exploitation of resources”.

They have also accused Germany of failing “badly at achieving its climate and biodiversity targets.”

The protestors spent the night inside the dealership, but Gianluca said the damage done to his hand as a result of glueing it to the floor has been immense.

He said his hand became swollen and a doctor had to be brought in to assess it.

“Doctors ascertained the possibility of life-threatening blood clots in my hand and recommended an immediate transfer to a hospital,” he said.

“My health is of course paramount. I accepted to leave this wonderful group and was taken to hospital, continuing my hunger strike.”

 

He explained that the group has three main demands for Volkswagen.

They want the company to “support the introduction of speed limits on German motorways”, “condone bonds held by VW from Global South”, and “declare infeasibility of 1.5C degrees goal.”

Meanwhile, it’s been a busy day for climate activists here in the UK as well. Just Stop Oil protestors have scaled the Dartford Crossing and thrown soup at a famous Van Gogh painting in the last week.

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