Winning Allen Bruce, 50, of Boulder, Colorado, who set himself on fire Friday – when Earth Day – suffered severe injuries and was airlifted to hospital where he died, a police spokesman said.
Those who know Bruce, who ran a portrait photo studio in Boulder, say he is protesting against inaction over the climate crisis.
Kritee Kanko, a climatologist and Zen Buddhist priest who claims to know Bruce through the same meditation group, wrote on Twitter that while they were still gathering more information, the activist may have planned the act for at least a year. CNN could not independently verify their connection.
“This act is not suicide. “This is a deeply fearless act of compassion to draw attention to the climate crisis,” she wrote on Twitter. “We are gathering information, but he has been planning it for at least a year. #wynnbruce I’m so excited. “In an interview with The New York Times, Kanko clarified her tweet, saying she was not entirely sure of Bruce’s intentions, but rather that” people have been brought to extreme amounts of climate grief and despair. “. Kanko said he did not want “young people (to) start thinking about self-immolation. About a year ago, Bruce responded to one of his own posts on climate change with a commentary including fire emojis and the date “4/22 / 2022.” His latest Facebook post on March 28 said: “This is NOT humor. It’s all about breathing, given the need for fresh air. Earlier this year, Bruce posted a photo of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg with the caption, “What about adults now?” In other social media posts, Bruce wrote about climate change, pollution, the environment and his belief in Buddhism.
This is not the first time someone has set himself on fire to protest inaction against climate change.
In April 2018, David Buckle, an attorney and environmentalist, got wet with gas and set himself on fire at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York. In an email to Buckle sent to the media before his death, he wrote: “Most people on the planet now breathe air that is unhealthy from fossil fuels, and many die of early death as a result – my early death from fossil fuels reflects this. what we are doing to ourselves. “
In Buddhism, the ascetic practice of self-immolation – in which one voluntarily assumes one’s life, usually by self-immolation – is extremely rare; this is a controversial practice among some adherents of the Mahayana tradition of religion.
It is practiced in South Vietnam in protest of the Vietnam War and continues to be used by Tibetans today. More than 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009 in protest of Chinese rule. In addition to these countries, it is a practice that has claimed the lives of hundreds (perhaps 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 returned to its normal Saturday, CNN reported. No one was injured in the incident, a court spokesman said.
The incident comes when the Supreme Court has to rule on what could be one of the most important cases of the climate crisis, as well as clean air for decades. Republican prosecutors and coal companies are demanding that the highest authority deprive the Environmental Protection Agency of its powers to regulate global warming emissions from power plants.
As the climate emergency progresses and its effects continue to be felt around the world, climate scientists and activists are stepping up their efforts to draw attention to the crisis through civil disobedience and risk arrest, blocking traffic and locking the entrances to financial buildings. institutions funding fossil fuel projects.
“Rest in power, Winn,” wrote on Twitter climatologist Peter Kalmus, who was recently arrested for locking himself in front of the JP Morgan Chase building in Los Angeles in protest of the bank’s funding for new fossil fuel projects. . “Everyone, we must fight side by side in solidarity for every particle of a degree. It’s not too late.
CNN’s Jamie Crawford, Jessica Schneider, Veronica Straqualurcy and Ella Nielsen contributed to this report
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