Self-immolation of Wynn Bruce

Wynn Alan Bruce was a climate activist from Boulder, Colorado. He grew up in Minnesota, where he participated in varsity cross country running. In the late 1980s, he moved to Florida to live with his mother, attending Hernando High School where he was a member of the science club. He graduated high school in 1989 and planned to join the US Air Force, but an accident in a car driven by one of his friends killed the friend and severely injured Bruce; he suffered a traumatic brain injury[2] as well as damage to one of his legs.[3] He moved to Boulder in the year 2000, and became interested in photojournalism.[2]

Bruce lived alone in Boulder, in a townhouse that was part of the city's affordable housing program. He had a cat.[4] He was a Buddhist, and while living in Boulder he practiced Shambhala Buddhism.[5] For some time he was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, which hosted his memorial service. He was a photojournalist who ran a portrait photography studio,[6] an active member of Boulder's contact improvisational dance community,[2] and a graduate of Front Range Community College and Community College of Denver.[7] He was additionally a climate activist.[8] According to his father, Douglas Bruce, "concern about the environment and climate issues" was "really heartfelt and central" to Wynn Bruce's identity; it had been a lifelong commitment that began with childhood trips to a family cabin at Lake Superior.[9]

According to some of Bruce's friends and neighbors, he often had difficulty making decisions as a result of his traumatic brain injury; two described him to The Independent as "suggestible".[4]

The self-immolation occurred in the plaza of the U.S. Supreme Court Building

In the afternoon on Wednesday, April 20, 2022,[15] Bruce asked two of his neighbors if they could drive him to the bus station in Boulder. He told them he intended to travel to Denver to meet with his "meditation group"; he was unable to drive because of his injuries from the 1989 car accident.[4] One neighbor did drop Bruce at the bus station; he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and carrying a backpack.[15] It is not known how he reached Washington, D.C.[4]

At roughly 6:30 p.m. on April 22, 2022 (Earth Day), Bruce approached the plaza of the United States Supreme Court Building on foot,[16] silently[4] sat down, and self-immolated.[16] According to a photographer who was present at the scene, Bruce sat upright and did not scream or cry out while on fire for a period of about 60 seconds, after which police extinguished the fire; only after the fire was out did he audibly express pain. Police officers used traffic cones to scoop water from a fountain in the plaza to extinguish Bruce.[2] Nobody else was injured.[7] Minutes after the self-immolation,[17] he was airlifted to a hospital by a helicopter belonging to the National Park Service.[13] Bruce died the following day as a result of his injuries; he was 50 years old.[5]

The Supreme Court Police, United States Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department closed the area surrounding the plaza to the public, citing the need for further investigation;[17] two streets were briefly closed but reopened by the following day.[18]

While no suicide note or manifesto was located after Bruce's death,[5][16] friends of his stated that he was protesting inaction with regard to the climate crisis.[19] A climate scientist and Zen priest named Kritee Kanko who was a friend of Bruce asserted on Twitter that he had likely been planning the self-immolation for a considerable length of time,[5] at least a year,[10] and that it was "not suicide" but rather "a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to climate crisis". Kanko later clarified that[5] she was not completely certain of Bruce's motivation for self-immolating.[13] Kanko and other leaders of the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center subsequently released a statement asserting that no Buddhist teacher in Boulder had preexisting knowledge of Bruce's plans, and stating that while they had never "talked about self-immolation" and "do not think self-immolation is a climate action", they understood why someone might resort to self-immolation "given the dire state of the planet and worsening climate crisis".[9] Extinction Rebellion activists stated that Bruce "died to raise the alarm on the climate and ecological crisis".[20] His father Douglas Bruce also attributed the self-immolation to the climate crisis, saying that "this was a fearless act of compassion about his concern for the environment".[2] His friend G. Michael Moore wrote in an opinion article for the Daily Camera that he believed Bruce "simply followed the logic of his convictions without flinching", deciding that the value of an individual life was "negligible compared to the havoc we are rapidly and irrevocably bringing to our planet".[21]

The only public suggestion by Bruce that his self-immolation was motivated by climate change were his posts to Facebook.[4][22] As of April 24, 2022, the Metropolitan Police Department had opened an ongoing investigation and had not yet determined Bruce's motives.[14] Officials were still working to determine a motive as of April 26.[16] An article published by MSNBC linked the self-immolation to climate grief;[10] The Guardian compared it to a similar act by civil rights lawyer David Buckel four years earlier.[22]

While The Washington Post published a profile of Bruce after his death, an article in The New Republic stated that his suicide had "received startlingly little coverage or op-ed discussion", explaining that coverage of self-immolations in the United States is "intentionally subdued". To avoid the phenomenon of copycat suicide, organizations including Reporting on Suicide publish guidelines advising journalists to avoid reporting details about suicides such as the motive, method, and location.[23]

Following his death, Bruce's Facebook page became a site for messages from climate activists and his friends. The Independent reported that environmental activists were planning a vigil for him.[6]

The Washington Post reported that while "some people reacted with pity and mockery, assuming in posts on social media that anyone driven to such an extreme must be struggling with their mental health", others expressed that "they understood his despair about the planet's future".[2] USA Today reported that Bruce's death sparked debate on social media, with views split between "sympathy for [...] a sacrificial act" and the argument that such sympathy is a glorification of suicide.[15]

• Alice Herz – anti-Vietnam War activist who died by self-immolation in Detroit in 1965
• Norman Morrison – anti-Vietnam War activist who died by self-immolation at The Pentagon in 1965
• List of political self-immolations