The lawn of Trinity College is seen after being dug up by Extinction Rebellion climate protesters, in Cambridge, England, February 17, 2020. (Social Media/Reuters)

There is perhaps no clearer embodiment of the self-righteous folly of youth — of that feverish passion for destroying things in the name of saving them — than the behavior of certain climate-change activists at Cambridge University this week. Student members of the “Extinction Rebellion” decided to attack Trinity College lawn with pitchforks, planting their flags in the turf, and rolling around in the mud, as part of a week-long series of demonstrations. (They ought to be suspended for vandalism, of course, but university officials are, like the local police, too scared to upset them.)


The vandals explained their choice of target on the Extinction Rebellion Cambridge Facebook group: “Trinity College must cut ties with fossil fuel companies and stop trying to hawk off nature for profit.” Ah, yes. Why hawk off nature when you can hack at it instead?