Newsletter 27: Crikey! Disobedience down under!

August 08, 2019 By Extinction Rebellion

(Sign up to the newsletter here) Welcome to our 27th newsletter! Mysterious symbol crops up in UK countryside Congratulations, you made it through the hottest month ever recorded. You know there’s something wrong when it’s 35°C (95°F) in Sweden, just north of the Arctic Circle, and there are wildfires in Siberia. Glaciers are melting so fast they are being described as ‘roaring’, and there was even a plaque to commemorate the first Icelandic glacier lost to climate change. Its name was Okjökull, or ‘Ok’ for short. Suffice it to…

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Newsletter 27: Crikey! Disobedience down under!

August 07, 2019 By Extinction Rebellion

Mysterious symbol crops up in UK countryside Congratulations, you made it through the hottest month ever recorded. You know there’s something wrong when it’s 35°C (95°F) in Sweden, just north of the Arctic Circle, and there are wildfires in Siberia. Glaciers are melting so fast they are being described as ‘roaring’, and there was even a plaque to commemorate the first Icelandic glacier lost to climate change. Its name was Okjökull, or ‘Ok’ for short. Suffice it to say, Ok is not OK! 40,000 litres of oil spilled into the sea…

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Newsletter 27: History Corner

August 07, 2019 By Extinction Rebellion

(image source) With a right-wing think tank now beginning to use the ‘t’ word to describe XR, now might be a good time to look at a period in the early 00s known as the ‘Green Scare’, when environmental activists in the US were routinely referred to as ‘domestic extremists’ and ‘terrorists’ and treated as such by the police, intelligence agencies and the legal system. This 2008 Crimethinc article goes into detail on the activist background of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, the decade-long FBI investigation known as ‘Operation Backfire,’ and describes the…

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Newsletter 27: Global XR Actions

August 07, 2019 By Extinction Rebellion

Hell hath no fury like a bank swarmed 25 JUL | Lausanne, Switzerland XR Switzerland saw its first arrests after a hefty police response to an action outside a bank in the city of Lausanne. Around fifty rebels swarmed the road outside the Crédit Suisse HQ, whose heavy fossil fuel investments make it the country’s most polluting bank. Roughly the same number of police appeared within minutes, splitting the protestors into two groups, containing them for three hours, and subjecting them to ID checks and a patronising ‘Don’t do this again’ speech. Eight rebels were then arrested and taken to…

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Newsletter 26: Take an ice-cold sip of Rebellion

July 25, 2019 By Extinction Rebellion

(You can sign up to the newsletter here) Rebels in London trying to change how the media covers heatwaves Welcome to our 26th newsletter! The heat just keeps on rising. This week has seen record-breaking temperatures in the UK , across mainland Europe and North America, and “unprecedented” wildfires around the Arctic circle. A recent study found that Europe’s five hottest summers since 1500 have all been in the 21st century. The severe consequences of this increasingly obvious change in the climate have been further illustrated by a study suggesting a ‘substantial…

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Newsletter 26: More news

July 25, 2019 By Extinction Rebellion

Real Climate critique of the recent report on the climate benefits of mass tree planting. It seems the effect would be more like ⅕-⅓ of carbon sequestration over 50-100 years rather than the stated ⅔ and ‘this proportion will decrease if emissions continue to grow’. In other words it’s still worth doing (sensitively according to the local variables) but curbing emissions is still the most important thing to do. Deer, sparrows and magpies are all at ‘substantial extinction risk’ because they may not be able to adapt fast enough to the changing climate. ‘What is worrisome is that…

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Newsletter 26: UK local actions

July 24, 2019 By Extinction Rebellion

Four rebels arrested at XR Manchester Pension Fund action 19 JUL | GMPF, Manchester A crowd of 60 rebels gathered outside the Greater Manchester Pension Fund to demand that it withdraw its billions from fossil fuel investments. The GMPF is the biggest and dirtiest of its kind in the UK with 10% of its investments (£2bn) in fossil fuels, or fossil fuel investors. Five rebels locked on and glued themselves to the front entrance to show councillors the depth of their feeling about these immoral and untenable investments. Four of these rebels were arrested and taken to two different police…

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The Summer of our Discontent

July 22, 2019 By Extinction Rebellion

Summer Uprising special The boats are back! In April, our beloved pink boat caused quite a stir in Oxford Circus. This time, rebels summoned not one but FIVE beautiful bright boats to sail us into the Summer Uprising in FIVE UK cities: Bristol, Leeds, London, Cardiff and Glasgow. And what an Uprising it was! Read on to get a flavour of how the Uprising played out in each city. The creative actions, stirring songs, fiery rebels, and particular messages gave this synchronised rebellion a life of its very own! Contents Bristol Leeds London…

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Newsletter 25: Love in the time of teargas

July 10, 2019 By Extinction Rebellion

(Sign up for this newsletter here) Welcome to our 25th newsletter! Our movement, which bravely faces up to the loss of so much, is no stranger to trauma – nor to tears. Nonetheless, the efforts of French police to elicit both of these from rebels last Friday marks something of a new departure in our short history of grief, love and action. When the world watched riot police in Paris deploying teargas at short range on peaceful, seated protesters (footage may be upsetting), we witnessed a shocking level of repression (see below for more).

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Exploring XR: Northern Ireland

July 10, 2019 By Extinction Rebellion

This week, we caught up with XR Northern Ireland, a relatively new group set up during the International Rebellion of April 2019. Here is a snapshot of XRNI’s experiences so far: their enthusiasm, creativity, deep concern for the environment and love for fellow human beings, all coloured by the intensity of NI politics and the realities of corporate assault on one of the least protected environments in the UK and Ireland. Promising beginnings “Our first day of action was during the International Rebellion. At the time, we just wanted to contribute to what was going on in…

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