ROME -- Activists of Italy's Last Generation environmental group poured diluted vegetable characol into Bernini's grand Fountain of the Four Rivers, which sits in the center of Piazza Navona, on Saturday, blackening it to warn of the "black future" to come as the climate crisis continues, according to ANSA. 

 Four members of the group were involved in the act of civil disobedience which was linked to their "We Won't Pay for Fossil Fuels" campaign, an aim to end investment in fossil fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses. 

 Police arrived on the scene shortly after it began, and the activists were quickly led away. 

 "Our future is as black as this water," said Anna, one of the group's activists. "Without water, there is no life, and with the temperature increases we are exposed to drought on the one hand and to floods on the other."

 The group poured the same liquid into the Piazza di Spagna fountain last month, leading Rome's mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, to call the act "another senseless gesture," writing on Twitter that "putting artistic heritage at risk does not save the environment." 

 The group has worked on the campaign through various other forms of activism this year. Earlier this week, six activists went topless in Rome's city center, stating that, "we go naked with our bodies, vulnerable like the planet," and in January, the group spray painted Rome's Senate building.

 jd