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VERIFY: No, a giant mural of Greta Thunberg did not require 700 cans, or 700 gallons, of aerosol spray paint to create

People are tweeting out a claim, reported by The Blaze and The Daily Wire, that a muralist paid homage to an environmental champion using aerosol spray paint.

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Following her selection as TIME's "Person of the Year," 16-year-old Greta Thunberg has been dominating the news cycle. But now, it's her visage on the side of a building in San Francisco that people can't stop talking about. 

Back in November, people began tweeting about a San Francisco mural paying homage to environmental champion, calling it hypocritical.

People began sharing rumors that originated from two news sites --The Blaze and The Daily Wire -- claiming 500 to 700 cans of aerosol spray paint were used to make the mural. As it spread, the rumor claimed 700 gallons of spray paint were used.

Of course, that's not terribly eco-friendly.

Our Verify team wants to know, did this mural actually require 700 cans, or 700 gallons, of aerosol spray paint to complete?

Our researchers went straight to the artist who created the mural, Andres Petreselli, a.k.a. "Cobre," and One Atmosphere, a San Francisco nonprofit who partnered with Cobre to make the giant Greta.

Cobre released a statement on Instagram, saying he used 80 eco-friendly spray paints, and about five gallons of hand rolled paint. The cans are going to be recycled into a sculpture on climate change.

Cobre says he also tried to minimize his carbon footprint by walking or using electric cars.

One Atmosphere backed that up on Instagram, saying that the vast majority of paint is water-based acrylic. When they had to use spray cans for the finishing touches, they chose ones without harmful chemicals, One Atmosphere said. 

One Atmosphere said the cans were delivered by way of electric vehicle and even the lift they used was electric, not diesel.

So, we can Verify that both the artist and the nonprofit that provided the paint, said they didn’t use 700 cans or 700 gallons of spray paint to create the Greyta mural. 

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