Wynn Bruce. Source Facebook via the Denver Post. Fair Use, Low Resolution Image to Identify the Subject.

Washington DC Climate Protest Horror: Activist Burns Himself to Death

Essay by Eric Worrall

h/t Breitbart; Boulder climate activist Wynn Bruce has died from self inflicted injuries, after setting fire to himself outside the US Supreme Court in Washington DC.

Boulder climate activist dies after apparent act of protest outside U.S. Supreme Court on Earth Day

Friend of Wynn Bruce says his actions in Washington, D.C., were planned to “bring attention to climate crisis”

By SHELLY BRADBURY | sbradbury@denverpost.com and NEW YORK TIMES | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: April 24, 2022 at 6:05 p.m. | UPDATED: April 24, 2022 at 6:36 p.m.

The Boulder man who set himself on fire in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Earth Day apparently acted in protest of inaction on climate change.

Wynn Bruce, 50, a climate activist, died Saturday, a day after his actions in front of the nation’s highest court in Washington, D.C. He was airlifted for treatment but did not survive.

Kritee Kanko, who described herself as Bruce’s friend and a Zen Buddhist priest in Boulder, said on Twitter that Bruce’s actions were a planned protest.

“This is a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to climate crisis,” she said in a tweet.

She declined to comment further when reached by The Denver Post on Sunday, saying she needed time to grieve.

However, she told The New York Times she was not completely sure of Bruce’s motivations, the newspaper reported, saying that “people are being driven to extreme amounts of climate grief and despair” and that “what I do not want to happen is that young people start thinking about self-immolation.”

There are indications that Bruce had contemplated this action for some time.

Read more: https://www.denverpost.com/2022/04/24/wynn-bruce-climate-change-self-immolation/

We at WUWT are saddened by the loss suffered by Wynn Bruce’s family and friends.

We urge anyone who feels extreme emotional distress about climate change or anything else to reach out to friends and family, and seek professional counselling.

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April 25, 2022 2:23 pm

He made the ultimate sacrifice – for being wrong.

April 25, 2022 2:27 pm

Throughout history there have been many “martyrs” for many different causes.
What they have in common is that the opposition killed them, even when they went willingly to their deaths.
This guy committed suicide, suicide for the false “The Cause”.
More blood on the tree ring.

kim
Reply to  Gunga Din
April 26, 2022 5:59 am

‘Blood on the tree ring’ is good.

The Piltdown Mann will get more than his desire for fame. He’ll be infamous for fearmongering for a long long time.
===============

Steve Harford
April 25, 2022 3:01 pm

As absolutely horrendous as this story is, I fear much worse awaits us. Anyone capable of committing suicide is certainly capable and often is even much more likely to commit murder.

April 25, 2022 3:12 pm

Here is the story in the local paper about the toll of 40 years of climate gaslighting on mental health yesterday.
Eco-anxiety: It’s real

Here was a great reply from the letter to the editor page today:
Sad for the students

Sad for the students

I read this story aloud to my wife, telling her it was from the Babylon Bee (a conservative Christian news satire website). We laughed together briefly until I told her it was the lead story on the Tampa Bay Times’ website. We’re now depressed for the students, who’ve been sold this hysteria. They were obviously not raised in homes that acknowledge our need to be as clean as practical, but that climate change began long before humans, at times when the Earth actually had zero ice. They were raised blinded to the blessing fossil fuels have been to humanity; imagine all the positives made possible for them. Those with eco-anxiety are universally from the first world. Because we are so blessed with no real issues of existential threat, they have the ability to create one in their minds. Go tell the Uyghurs how bad plastic cups are. Go tell a Central American girl sold into rape/slavery the same. I’m sure the Ukrainians will lend a shoulder for them all to cry on. Gratitude is the basis for happiness. The eco-obsessed do nothing to demonstrate any. Shame on the “adults” in the classroom for continually stoking the fire of their despair. Regardless of the policy costs in fighting the unwinnable, the Earth will continue to turn, the climate will continue to change, and governments will continue to loot the people.

Jason Barrera, Oldsmar
Reply to  ThisWasTheGoal
April 25, 2022 5:54 pm

The links don’t open without registration.

April 25, 2022 3:30 pm

Obviously mentally disturbed, using climate change as an excuse to leave the world. Living comes with personal responsibilties e.g., on using minds and given talents and capabilities .. throwing in the towel is just an excuse for calling it a day (or life) for good. Bless and rest his extremely troubled soul. But by those standards those who pursue radical interpretations also fall into the same category… take good care Greta.

CHRISTOPHER
April 25, 2022 3:48 pm

If you tell people for years they have no future WTH do you think is going to happen! My condolences to this misguided individual and his family.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  CHRISTOPHER
April 26, 2022 4:42 am

A victim of Climate Change Brainwashing/Scaremongering.

Dave Fair
April 25, 2022 3:59 pm

What a great friend, that Kritee Kanko; not notifying DC police of his intent to commit suicide.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Dave Fair
April 26, 2022 4:48 am

It does sound like someone had some prior knowledge about what this person might do.

What a waste.

Makes me think of Michael Mann and Phil Jones and the Climate Change lies they created that spawned all this CO2 crisis insanity.

Eamon Butler
April 25, 2022 4:11 pm

Truly a tragic thing. The hysteria must stop.

JoeG
April 25, 2022 4:27 pm

Sad. But this is what cult-like brainwashing will do.

Roy W Spencer
April 25, 2022 4:39 pm

I’ve counseled someone who had been so convinced by climate alarmists that we are killing ourselves with CO2 that he was very despondant. I don’t know whatever happened to him. This movement is evil.

Bill Parsons
Reply to  Roy W Spencer
April 25, 2022 6:41 pm

The movement is evil. And the enablers are at the root of it. Google is melding public interest in this story into its narrative about how global warming is inducing a greater degree of mental illness. I Googled “How many people have committed suicide to protest global warming?” (because I know there have been others including self-immolators). The search results come back skewed in several different obvious directions, but with no answer to the question.

Suicides of nearly 60000 Indian farmers linked to climate
Opinion: Climate Change Linked to Suicide (I.e. Climate change is causing more suicides)
Effects of Climate Change on Suicide Rates
As climate worsens, environmentalists also grapple with the mental toll of activismWill Climate Change Lead to More Suicides in Canada?
Renowned Civil Rights Lawyer Self-Immolates in Brooklyn Park

(… And of course, many references to David Buckel and Wynn Bruce)

Never let a perfectly good crisis go to waste.

Fin.
April 25, 2022 5:30 pm

Little people wanting to go out in a blaze (pi) of “glory”. Let’s hope this spreads to the IPCC. And to the data fiddlers. Gone and quickly forgotten.

Geoff Sherrington
April 25, 2022 5:32 pm

Burning self puts more CO2 into the air.
Could have used electrocution using renewables only.
Geoff S

Ebor
Reply to  Geoff Sherrington
April 25, 2022 9:15 pm

Indeed, opportunity missed there.

AGW is Not Science
Reply to  Geoff Sherrington
April 27, 2022 8:53 am

The ‘protest’ loses impact if the guy sits there holding some wires while he waits for the wind to blow hard enough, though. And it might send the “wrong message” (there’s that whole thing again) about the “intermittency” of “renewable energy.”

Plus, he can only do that if he’s disconnected from the grid; otherwise he’ll just be letting fossil fuels do the job anyway.

4 Eyes
April 25, 2022 5:54 pm

people are being driven to extreme amounts of climate grief and despair…”

By whom? Surely not the Doomsters? They couldn’t possibly be responsible / sarc. My psychiatrist daughter would say this person had mental health issues. I say he made a bad choice based on irrational thinking. (She and I have these arguments all the time). We’ll never really know why this guy made the decision that he did.

Iain Russell
April 25, 2022 5:56 pm

Ashes to ashes, Save the Planet??

April 25, 2022 5:57 pm

I know enough about Boulder to stay away. This poor troubled soul was left adrift by a “friend” and deluded by a charlatan cadre of nut bags. Part of me wants to laugh and call this the Darwin algorithm, but no, this is a form of madness brought on by exploitation of the feeble minded. This ranks right up there with cutting off your genitals and waiting for a ride on a comet. A very sad state of affairs.

Editor
April 25, 2022 6:37 pm

It’s time for the climate alarmists to recognise that this has gone too far, and to back off.

Actually, long overdue.

April 25, 2022 6:51 pm

a deeply fearless act of compassion

hmmm, maybe avoid the Kool-Aid at the next climate conference

not the first, not the last… remember the Discovery nut?

it’s not a coincidence the same people are all-in on promoting genital mutilations associated with highest rates of suicide of nearly any risk group

April 25, 2022 7:30 pm

Extremist self immolates outside of the SCOTUS building, allegedly because of climate change…

An irrational act for irrational reasons with apparently irrational aims…

Serves as an example to no one.
Inspires no one.

Apparently died as he lived, without understanding reality.

April 25, 2022 8:08 pm

Very sad and so unnecessary. Condolences to his family and friends.

CO2Greens
April 25, 2022 8:44 pm

Natural selection.

April 25, 2022 9:23 pm

We at WUWT are saddened by the loss suffered by Wynn Bruce’s family and friends.

We urge anyone who feels extreme emotional distress about climate change or anything else to reach out to friends and family, and seek professional counselling.

Well said

Dennis Stayer
April 25, 2022 9:27 pm

So sad, he actually believed the lies of the left, if he had done his own research he would have found that the computer models for which he gave his life were not fit for purpose, they were designed to enrich the few for the achievement of global socialism.

Christopher K Fay
April 25, 2022 11:48 pm

How deeply stupid!

observa
Reply to  Christopher K Fay
April 26, 2022 8:38 am

Yes he should have realized white male wouldn’t resonate with the usual suspects. OTOH isn’t he permitted DIY euthanasia of choice? Or does he require a permit from a suitably qualified panel of public servants for the purpose and only in the approved manner? Out of sight and out of mind.

ozspeaksup
April 26, 2022 3:14 am

appears hed announced his date of death well planned nearly a year
so shouldnt surprise anyone
but odd none of his “friends” did anything
and typically the ex reb mob thought it was a good protest idea

observa
Reply to  ozspeaksup
April 26, 2022 9:05 am

Well to be fair his ‘friends’ may not have taken him seriously and just thought he was a bit more ‘out there’ with their doomsaying than they were. A somewhat macabre dilemma for them than for me if he were a ‘friend’. I’d be trying to cheer him up and pointing him to the science of global warming and the lack thereof but where does that leave all of them trying to bring him around?

FreemenRtrue
April 26, 2022 4:11 am

May Almighty God have mercy on his poor misled soul. Have not your Faith in men. Even the Absolute Truth was crucified by a corrupt government and a corrupt church and a maddened mob.

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