A group of students in Cologne drew massive attention to the climate change crisis as parts of a school project by standing on blocks of ice under makeshift gallows.
The students stood on ice blocks with ropes loosely around their necks as the blocks slowly melted until there was nothing left.
The ice melting resulted in them hanging from the gallows with their feet in the air.
Thankfully no one was harmed during the protest as it was part of an art performance for a school project to raise awareness about climate change.
The art performance called ‘Eis am Strick’/’Ice on the Rope.’
The students decided to stand in the center of Cologne outside the Apple Store at Brunnen as the the particular area is a “backdrop of consumption supported our concerns”, according to the students.
Many thousands of people were “shocked and confused” to see them standing in such a way.
Anne and Sophia, hoping to draw attention to the injustices of climate change, stressed that the world is in an ‘inevitable situation’ which can only be stabilized by global cooperation.
The students said in a statement:
“Three students standing on top of melting blocks of ice. Ropes around their necks, below a gallows, in the heart of a shopping area. We are expecting the obvious, being watched by a surprised, confused, and supportive audience. With this climate political art performance in the heart of consumerism, we want to create a memorable image of our present: We all continue our climate-damaging lifestyles, despite of all our knowledge about the consequences.”
“The polar caps are melting, extreme weather incidents intensify, the sea level is rising, and along with it, the number of climate victims. It takes a forceful and shocking performance, as we present it here, to condense the wicked problems within a clear and lucid image. To ensure the performance didn’t put anyone involved in danger, the students worked closely with the sustainable ice cream company Floridaeis, who made the ice blocks specifically for this purpose.”
In addition the students also dawned safety spikes underneath their shoes which enabled them to stand on the ice blocks without slipping.
The knot in the rope was then tied in a way which ensured it could not contract.
And not just that but there was no fear of the rope harming anyone as it was a dummy rope in case one of the students did fall.
A team was close by for any mental, physical and medical emergencies so the group’s well-being was first priority.
The students continued on, saying:
“Climate change is in full swing. So far, almost nothing has changed. Everybody is involved and part of it. We wanted to have an art performance in a public space, [which] parallels the audience with a mirror. The next 11 years until the year 2030 is an extremely short time to learn from mistakes…The problem of polar cap melt we addressed by a social sculpture in the public space.”
Both Anne and Sophia’s efforts were thanked by Extinction Rebellion Nederland, who shared a picture of their performance on social media.
The snapshot quickly gained a lot of attention with thousands of people praising the students for drawing attention to such an important issue.
Areeba Hamid, a Greenpeace UK campaigner, shared with UNILAD how explained how we are living through the impact of climate change right now.
Areeba said:
“Climate change means – and there is absolutely no doubt in the scientific community – it means frequent heat waves and it means a change in weather pattern. We know that something’s wrong – climate change is happening and we know it’s happening. So I think the bigger question is what are we going to do about it? The facts are on the table, this is a climate emergency as we’ve heard. What are we going to do about it, how are we going to deal with it, how are we going to reduce our carbon emissions rapidly?”