COP27: Olympics of Pollution and 9 other creative climate protests, ranked

Climate protests have become inventive over the years. (Photo: Andrew via Wikimedia Commons)

There’s no planet B. It’s why all eyes will be on COP27 UN Climate Change Conference for the next two weeks. Delegates from almost every country on Earth will get together to better understand climate change, assess its impacts, and develop tools to address its causes and consequences.

With all of this at stake, and more, it’s no wonder that activists have already started to show up and stand-out in creative ways to make sure leaders are aware of the important decisions that need to be made. The latest wave has seen climate protesters across Europe resort to increasingly extreme methods to grab attention — from throwing soup to sticking themselves to art and buildings.

It got us a little creative too, so we are ranking the most inventive campaigns over the years that ensured their message was heard.

10. Just Stop Oil
Protest group Just Stop Oil has made headlines this year. Its bold actions include everything from throwing soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (1888) at the National Gallery in London to defacing luxury car and watch showrooms.

While they have been successful in drawing attention to their cause (calling for the UK government to end all future licensing for the development and production of fossil fuels), their methods have discouraged more people from backing them.

9. Mermaids inside the British Museum
In 2016, when the British Museum decided to renew its sponsorship with a major oil company for an exhibition, 200 mermaids, pirates and sea monsters filled its Grand Court in protest.

The flash-mob — or splash-mob as they called themselves — put up a play wearing something shimmery, or blue, or aquatic. Someone even got eaten by 40ft sea monster in the end. Ironically, the exhibition was called "Sunken Cities".

8. The Hope Signs
A pen is mightier than a sword. It’s why 50 renowned authors such as Jojo Moyes, Anthony Doerr, Lauren Groff and David Lagercrantz are playing their part in climate action by penning thought-provoking missives.

Some of the messages are: "We all share a little boat whirling through a vast and frigid night. Protect the boat", "It is through hope that we create the world not yet visible but possible" and "Deep time sings of non-human things. We can listen."

Curated by the Gothenburg Book Fair, the Hope Signs can be borrowed by anyone willing to spread the word at climate protests or on social media.

7. Fridays for Future
It was 2018 when 15-year-old Greta Thunberg started skipping school every Friday to spend time outside the Swedish Parliament. She held a sign that read: "Skolstrejk för klimatet" (School strike for climate), as she demanded stronger action for climate change.

Millions of students, in her country and around the world, joined in over time. Their global movement came to be known as Fridays for Future. Thunberg said, the protests show that “young people all over the world are stepping up, showing that our leaders messed with the wrong generation”.

6. Pastivism
We won’t blame you for not hearing of “pastivism”. It was coined just last year at the G7 summit in Cornwall. Local resident Neil Scott and his fellow activists from a local UK group Extinction Rebellion put up dozens of crocheted versions of the region’s most famous dish, the Cornish Pasty, at locations where the world leaders were to meet.

The pasties weren’t there to celebrate local cuisine. They each had a powerful message about climate change stitched on them. The best one: “Earth’s crust is burning.” It’s certainly food for thought.

"We call it pastivism": Knitted Cornish protest pasties from a local @ExtinctionR group are in St Ives for this weekend's G7 summit. #ClimateChange #G7UK #G7Cornwallhttps://t.co/fB45IHoyl8

— Michael Greer (@MGreer_PR) June 11, 2021

5. Rising Seas

Just before COP26 in Glasgow last year, band Midnight Oil released a single that took on the Australian government for inaction on climate change. Titled Rising Seas, the song criticises the lack of measures taken in the country to reduce emissions.

A music video accompanying the single featured clips of melting ice caps and Sydney’s harbour bridge shrouded in bushfire smoke. In a press statement, guitarist and songwriter Jim Moginie said, “We all have a right to let our leaders know that they need to do much more to address carbon pollution. And they need to start right now.”

4. Olympics of Pollution
In 1972, in Sweden, a group of young people gathered at the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment to announce the winners of the first edition of the Olympics of Pollution. Their aim was to draw attention to the rising pollution around the world.

Winners were awarded across different categories such as automobile pollution, etc. The group drew attention for their innovative concept and for making their voice heard.

3. Cough for coal
In 2013, long before carbon-neutral and net-zero became a part of our lexicon, 500 climate activists from 130 countries met in Istanbul. In collaboration with inflatables artist Artúr von Balen, they came up with the idea of building a giant inflatable, breathing lung that would travel the world to illustrate the effects of coal combustion.

It symbolised our own lungs, which are damaged by the air pollution that is created due to coal, and the lungs of the planet struggling to breathe because of climate change.

2. #ShowTheLove
On Valentine’s Day in 2018, millions of climate fans sported green hearts to #ShowTheLove for the things they wanted to protect from climate change — from football fields to wetlands.

The response to the UK organisation Climate Coalition’s campaign was incredible, and saw politicians, sports icons, film stars and the general public unite together to demand a cleaner, more sustainable future for themselves and future generations.

1. Act Now
In 2021, at the G7 summit in Cornwall, Greenpeace UK lit the sky up with a strong and simple message. In one of the more extravagant displays seen, close to 300 lit-up drones zoomed out in the night to form 3D shapes of iconic species such as a whale, elephant and cheetah.

Messages of “Stop Extinction” and “Act Now” were beamed into the sky alongside. The group also turned the creative spectacle into a powerful video and called on world leaders present at the summit to protect biodiversity before it is too late.