In his short time on this planet, Justin Bieberhas been the centre of many scandals - a drink driving arrest, losing his pet monkey, faking his wife Hailey's pregnancyon this year's April Fool's… But it’s fair to say the 25-year-old's latest scandal isn’t what we were expecting from the former child star. And that's because he might kind of be responsible for destroying a small part of the planet.
Let us explain: it’s all to do with the music video to Bieber’s I’ll Show You. (Do you remember it? No? Us neither, tbh.) For the uninitiated, picture the scene, it features Biebz quite literally running and rolling around a gorgeous canyon in Iceland. It’s very #aesthetic; it’s been watched over 440 million times. And, long story short, this brings us to his latest scandal - as Iceland’s Fjadrárgljúfur Canyon has now had to close, because, since the video was released, over 1 million people have come to see where Justin stripped down to his boxers.
As reported by NME, the number of visitors nearly doubled between 2017 and 2018, and the footfall from these visitor numbers has caused damage to the vegetation and pathways, which has been made worse by changing weather conditions. Iceland’s Environmental Agency made the decision to close the canyon for two weeks in March, but they have now made the drastic decision to extend the closure until June 1.
Environment Minister Gudmundur Ingi Gudbrandsson told The Associated Press it is 'a bit too simplistic to blame the entire situation on Justin Bieber' but urged celebs to consider where they promote things, saying ‘rash behavior by one famous person can dramatically impact an entire area if the mass follows.’ But, in fairness, he did defend the Biebz, adding that, ‘in Justin Bieber’s defense, the canyon did not, at the time he visited, have rope fences and designated paths to show what was allowed and what not.’
Somehow, when the canyon reopens, we don’t expect the visitor count to go down.
READ MORE: How Have Ed Sheeran And Justin Bieber Managed To Create A Single So Terrible?