As a visual protest against the Bedex arms fair taking place in the iconic Brussels expo halls from Thursday until Saturday, activists from climate movement Extinction Rebellion (XR) have coloured one of the big ponds in front of the building red – to resemble a bloodbath.
The activists are denouncing what they call "a militarisation spree in Europe," as governments – including in Belgium – are imposing austerity cuts worth billions of euros as they aim to achieve the new NATO norm of 3.5% GDP for military spending.
"We want to show people what our future looks like as long as we allow our leaders to keep promoting war and refuse to stop the collapse of our climate systems," they said.
The material used to change the colour of the pond is environmentally friendly and non-toxic, safe for fish, birds and other wildlife, and free of pesticides and herbicides.
Independent estimates show that if Europe achieves 3.5% GDP spending on the military, the continent's CO2 emissions will rise by 12% – roughly a fifth of all its emissions reduction since 1990.
In terms of annual greenhouse gas emissions, conservative estimates say that this would be the same as adding the annual emissions of a medium-sized EU Member State, such as Portugal, into the mix.
'Collective climate suicide'
"Our governments have failed us. We have already broken the 1.5°C limit of global warming over the past 3 years. The Paris targets are dead, and we have entered a new phase of deadly climate insecurity, threatening our food systems," said XR activist Sacha.
"And what is the new plan, even supported by many ‘green’ parties? To buy more weapons. Instead of offering young people a future, our leaders prefer to send them to war," they said. "Weapons will not give us security. We cannot shoot the rising seas, and we cannot eat bombs."
The impact of military spending and weapons production on climate and nature contributes "to our collective climate suicide," Sacha said. "We can never live in security as long as wars and climate chaos destroy the earth."
The visual protest is part of a campaign to ban fossil fuel and "ecocidal corporate lobbying in Europe," similar to the ban on tobacco lobbying, XR said.
Previous actions have targeted the Brussels offices of the European arms lobby of Aerospace Security and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) and the European Chemical Industry lobby group Cefic.
