By Natalia Rueda 
Climate activists demonstrated a powerful message this week when they vandalized the $300 million superyacht owned by billionaire Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie. The incident took place at the dock of the Spanish island of Ibiza, and Mexican activists of the Futuro Vegetal group used fire extinguishers filled with red and black paint to graffiti the message “you consume, others suffer” on the yacht.
The protest is part of a campaign from Extinction Rebellion Ibiza, which calls for banning private jets and ending emissions from related luxury activities, to raise awareness of the 1%’s disproportionate contribution to the climate crisis. The campaigners cite this brigade as “an essential part of a strategy to reduce global emissions enough to avert catastrophe.”
The yacht, named Kaos, was schedule to depart the island Sunday, but was instead met with outcry. The Futuro Vegetal group stated in a tweet that “the megarich live off the suffering of others,” and that “the only reason we maintain an economic system leading to ecosocial collapse is to sustain the privileges of this small privileged class.”
According to reports, two members of the activist group were detained at the dock after the incident. The Spanish Guardia Civil is handling the investigation and no other details about the crime are available.
Laurie is currently ranked one of the richest women in the world, with a net worth of US$7.77 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The incident serves as a stark reminder of the growing wealth gap between the rich and poor in both the United States and the world at large and of the urgent need to address climate change and its devastating effects on all global citizens.