Climate Protesters Delay Formula E Race By Swarming Track

Formula E held its Berlin E-Prix this past weekend, but the race start saw an unexpected delay: Climate protesters swarmed the grid, climbing fences and gluing themselves to safety vehicles. If you think that Formula E — a series noted for being electric — is an odd choice for a climate protest, you aren’t alone. Think about things a little differently, however, and the choice of venue starts to make sense.

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The group claiming responsibility for the protest is called Last Generation, a German climate activism group. You may recognize the name from some of their other efforts: Throwing soup at art, throwing mashed potatoes at art, gluing their hands to art. Less newsworthy than these, however, are the series of highway protests Last Generation has undertaken — often involving protesters gluing themselves to asphalt, so they can’t move out of the way of oncoming traffic.

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So, we have a sense of Last Generation’s goals and tactics here: Get maximum impact in the news, by attacking — but never damaging — things that people were already looking at. The group takes the attention that people pay towards art, and tries to shift it to climate consciousness. Does it work? Who’s to say, but at least it’s consistent.