And just a few days ago, on Nov. 8,  activists from the Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies group scrawled blue ink across Andy Warhol’s famous soup can prints in the National Art Gallery of Australia.

In all three instances, the climate change activists glued their hands to the paintings, which were behind a glass pane and unharmed by the acts. While the stunts have garnered controversy from various audiences, MSU sociology and environmental justice professor Stephen Gasteyer said he thinks the demonstrations are effective.

“If the point was to send the message that young people are still out here and deeply concerned about their future and climate change … then in that sense, it’s effective,” Gasteyer said. “Because it shows that there are people who are willing to get arrested, willing to do something alarming, even if it’s not particularly consequential.”

Gasteyer pointed out that the groups all made international coverage, which is a show of force.

However, if the groups’ intentions were to make a consequential impact in terms of policy change, Gasteyer said their methods are not productive.

“Even if they’ve read a very detailed statement, that statement doesn’t make it into the news,” Gasteyer said. “So effectiveness really depends on what the target was, and what was the point.”

Comparative culture and politics sophomore Savitri Anantharaman is a Core Team Member of MSU Sunrise, an environmental activist group. They said the stunts get people to talk about climate change as a crisis.

“That’s not to say that all press is good press,” Anantharaman said. “But the fact that we’ve changed from just calling it climate change, sort of vague, to this emergency where life can’t go on as usual … is really powerful.”

Comparative cultures and politics and sustainability junior Truman Forbes said that he saw two sides to the art protests. He is also a Sunrise Core Team Member.

“At first glance, it seems kind of ridiculous that someone would just throw soup at an art piece and call it climate activism,” Forbes said. “But when they did it, they knew none of the artwork would get damaged. They knew they would get a lot of media attention, which is exactly what happened. They got people to pay attention even though it’s an unconventional way.”

While some may see the stunts as unnecessary and harmful to the green movement, Forbes said it’s important to remember that they are not the only form of climate change activism going on today.

“That's why people are mad, but it's just one small part to get people to pay attention so well, I think they can steer away from the message,” Forbes said. “I think that it does do some good as well.”

Gasteyer said climate change activism is evolving and new methods are emerging.

“At the turn of the 2010s … it was really very much policy-oriented,” Gasteyer said. “There was a lot of effort going on to try to figure out how do we (educate people about) climate action and move it from this elitist space from thinking about climate trade, to what are we really talking about here?”

Gasteyer emphasized the role of popular culture in environmental activism. He said movies like “Don’t Look Up,” which depicted humans failing to react to climate disasters, can reinforce to people that climate change is a real issue, not just conjecture. Forbes also said that popular culture has a "massive impact" in this way.

"I think that the only way to make true change when it comes to climate activism … is you have to shift the mindsets of people,” Forbes said.

Rather than try and convince people over and over again, knowing they won’t listen, Forbes said, it can be more effective to turn to a gradual cultural shift through media.

While Anantharaman doesn't doubt the importance of popular culture in the climate movement, they said there is more to be done.

“Getting involved with the political side of all of this, writing to your representatives, joining protests and getting involved with the climate movement," Anantharaman said. "It's all important, and it's all necessary for us to face this.”