Beginning 2020 with Rebellion, Regeneration, and Inspiration
2020 promises to be a critical year for our beautiful and devastated planet. We rang in the new year with blood, fire, and an echoing silence from our delinquent governments. These events have only strengthened our resolve to keep up the fight against ecological collapse and raise our voices for those that have none. As always, we’re continually overwhelmed and inspired by the bravery and creativity our fellow rebels have shown in the face of such global atrocities. We truly could not do this without you.
And for those of you who are still silently watching and waiting, let this be your invitation. Come join us, we’ve been waiting for you, there’s truly no time to waste.
Local XR News
XR Mindful Rebels marked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, January 20th with a meditation in Washington Square -- a peaceful (and chill?) start to XR NYC’s 2020 actions.
Rebels of XR
All of us in Extinction Rebellion are ordinary people in these extraordinary times. We are teachers, students, mechanics, artists, chefs, doctors and engineers. We are your neighbors, colleagues, siblings, parents, and grandparents. Some of us have been aware of the climate crisis for years, while some of us have just recently opened our eyes. Our reasons for joining the rebellion are as varied and unique as we are. This is Ayisha’s story:
XR Around the Globe
We entered into 2020 knowing that 2019 was the 2nd hottest year on record and it was revealed that children born in 2012 haven’t lived a single day without feeling the effects of climate change. The Australian fires continue to rage, taking hundreds of lives, possibly rendering entire species extinct, and releasing ⅓ as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as Australia usually produces in an entire year.
And as world leaders and billionaires head to Davos, XR has been busy staging protests around the globe. We made a stand for sustainable mobility with protests at the Montreal Auto Show and at the Brussels Motor show, where 150 protestors were arrested after smearing fake blood on the cars and staging die-ins to draw attention to the role that automobile manufacturers and oil companies play in rising CO2 levels.
In Melbourne, Australia thousands took to the streets and buried their heads in the sand to slam the country’s government’s climate change denial and reliance on fossil fuels while demanding a declaration of a climate emergency. And in Scotland they blocked the entrance to Shell Oil’s headquarters
A group of rabbis from around the world released a call to action that calls on all people to join movements to affect political change, declaring “Our children and grandchildren face deep misery and death unless we act.” And in the UK, XR was included in a counter-terrorism police document and inexplicably joined a list of far-right extremists and jihadists, in what is seen by many as an attempt to intimidate radicalism in the environmental fight and was called by one Labor leader “absolute nonsense.”
A landmark UN human rights ruling declared that it is unlawful for governments to return people to countries where their lives are at risk because of the climate crisis. The case centered around a man from Kiribati who has been called the world’s first climate refugees. Kiribati is a Pacific island threatened by rising sea levels where overcrowding and violence have resulted from migration from neighboring, now-uninhabitable islands. With this decision the UN puts world leaders on notice that immediate action has to be taken now. The fact that it took the UN 25 years to get to this ruling shows the need for additional, more dramatic grassroots action against the international corporate and government leadership that resists making the necessary changes that are required in a climate emergency.
Recommended Reading
“Climate change becomes a top business threat” reports Axios, keep up the pressure rebels!
And in other good news, Black Rock announces plans to divest from fossil fuels and new initiatives to focus on sustainability.
Charles M. Blow recounts his journey into radical environmentalism; it’s never too late to join!
Especially since 2019 is the second hottest year on record, and 2020 is only going to get worse.
The United Kingdom Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) released their 2020 report cards with evidence, from over 150 scientists, that not only are UK sea levels rising, but there is already a noticeable impact on food webs.
Another study in Nature Climate change focused on how negatively changes in one area of the world, or in an entirely separate ecosystem, can impact another.
It’s going to take all of us and while grassroots action has been on the rise, it’s also important to rebuild our communities in the process. The New Republic examines the loneliness of the resistance protestor.
Which is why our focus on regenerative culture is such a crucial part of Extinction Rebellion. Age of Awareness explains exactly what regenerative culture entails and how we have the choice to live regeneratively every day.
Tylt’s editorial series featuring our very own Nathaniel Walcott and the brave actions of XR Youth during the Times Square boat drop last October.