Wynn Alan Bruce, 50, of Boulder, Colorado, who blew himself up on Friday as the world celebrated Earth Day, suffered serious injuries and was airlifted to hospital, where he died, a police spokesman said.
Those who knew Bruce, who had run a portrait photography studio in Boulder, say he was protesting inaction on the climate crisis.
Kritee Kanko, a climatologist and Zen Buddhist priestess who claims to know Bruce through the same meditation group, wrote on Twitter that while they are still gathering more information, the activist may have planned the act for at least a year. CNN was unable to independently verify their relationship.
“This act is not suicide. This is a deeply bold act of compassion to bring attention to the climate crisis.”
she posted on twitter. “We are gathering information but he had been planning it for at least a year. #wynnbruce I am very touched.”
in a
interview with The New York TimesKanko clarified her tweet by saying that she wasn’t entirely sure of Bruce’s intentions, but instead “people are being driven to extreme levels of pain and despair by climate change.” Kanko said that she did not want “young people to start thinking about self-immolation.
About a year ago, Bruce responded to
one of your own posts about climate change with a comment that included a fire emoji and the date “04/22/2022.”
His last
facebook post on March 28 he said, “This is NOT humor. This is ALL about breathing,” referring to the need for clean air.
Earlier this year, Bruce
posted a photo of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg with the caption “And now, adults?” In other social media posts, Bruce wrote about climate change, pollution, the environment, and her faith in Buddhism.
This is not the first time someone has set themselves on fire to protest inaction on climate change.
In April 2018, David Buckel, an attorney and environmental advocate, doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York. In an email sent by Buckel to
the media before he died, he wrote: “Most humans on the planet now breathe air polluted by fossil fuels, and many die prematurely as a result. My premature death from fossil fuels reflects what we are doing to ourselves.”
In Buddhism, the ascetic practice of self-immolation, in which one takes one’s own life voluntarily, usually by setting oneself on fire, is extremely rare; it is a controversial practice among some followers of the Mahayana tradition of the religion.
It was practiced in South Vietnam to protest the Vietnam War and is still used by Tibetans today. More than 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009 to protest Chinese rule. Aside from those countries, it is a practice that has claimed the lives of hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of activists in India, South Korea, and even Kurds protesting in Western Europe, according to
sociologist Michael Biggs.
The area around the Supreme Court was closed on Friday for further investigation, according to a court spokesman. The courthouse square had returned to normal on Saturday, CNN noted. No one else was injured in the incident, a court spokesman said.
The incident comes as the Supreme Court is due to rule on what could be one of the biggest cases for the climate crisis and clean air in decades. Republican state attorneys general and coal companies are asking the supreme court to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to regulate emissions of planet-warming gases from power plants.
As the climate emergency unfolds and its impacts continue to be felt around the world, climate scientists and activists have increased their efforts to draw attention to the crisis, through civil disobedience and risking arrest by blocking traffic. and lock themselves in the entrances of the buildings of financial institutions. financing of fossil fuel projects.
“Rest in power, Wynn,” climatologist Peter Kalmus, who was recently arrested for barricading himself in the driveway of the JP Morgan Chase building in Los Angeles to protest the bank’s funding of new fossil fuel projects,
wrote on Twitter. “Everyone, we must fight side by side in solidarity for every fraction of a degree. It is NOT too late.”
CNN’s Jamie Crawford, Jessica Schneider, Veronica Stracqualursi and Ella Nilsen contributed to this report.
Reference-www.cnn.com
