Rebel Year in Review
Happy holidays, Rebels!
As the year draws to a close, we can’t help but get a little sentimental as we think of how far our band of rebels has come. We’ve grown from just a couple hundred passionate folks with a vision in January to a force of over 7,000 citizens intent on protecting this beautiful planet we call home. Thanks to your efforts, our local government responded in late June and New York City became the first major city in the U.S. to declare a climate emergency, fulfilling our second demand.
Suffice to say, it’s been a busy year, so XR NYC will be taking a much-deserved break this holiday season. During this period there will be no scheduled events, so don’t worry if it’s a little quiet around here! We’re merely hibernating and will be back in full-force in January.
Growth is optional
Regeneration* is optimal
Society tells us that growth at any cost is necessary. Nature shows us an alternative, that after a cycle of growth comes a cycle of rest and regeneration. The XR NYC Regenerative Culture working group is calling for a movement-wide regeneration and reconnection period from December 21 to January 5. We encourage all Rebels to put down all XR-related tasks and take this time for connection and regeneration.
*Regeneration is the process of renewal, restoration, and growth that makes genomes, cells, organisms, and ecosystems resilient to natural fluctuations or events that cause disturbance or damage.
But before we wrap up this year, come pull up a chair, grab your festive drink of choice, put on some of those classic XR holiday singalongs such as the “12 Days of Extinction”, and let’s celebrate our favorite moments of 2019.
Top 10 Highlights of 2019
XR NYC Rebellion Day One at Rockefeller Center - January 26
Early into 2019, people from LA to Chicago, from DC to Austin, spoke up to demand that our government declare a Climate Emergency and get us to zero emissions by 2025; here in NYC, we led the charge with style. Hundreds marched, dozens blocked traffic and staged die-ins, even lying in formation on the famous ice rink at Rockefeller Center. We also dropped a giant banner over the rink’s Prometheus statue to let people know that climate change = mass death.
Check out live video from that very special day in XR NYC history.
Funeral Processions
We carried coffins, tombstones, and symbols of remembrance. We wore somber apparel, created props, and played elegic music. We mourned all living beings—both human and nonhuman—that have died, are now dying, and will die in the future as a result of this ecological catastrophe. We honored our ancestors, shared our demands, and invited bystanders to join our processions. Along with the Red Brigade and other performers, we cried and sang, spoke and danced. We also expressed our gratitude for the life we have and the future we envision for our planet.
Watch a stunning video of the Red Brigade to feel the power of our rituals.
Declare Climate Emergency at City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge - April 17
Hundreds of passionate rebels rallied outside City Hall, took part in Citizen Assemblies, and wrote messages on the sidewalk to demand that NYC finally declare a Climate Emergency. 60 of us took the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge, shutting down traffic for over 45 minutes, as two rebels scaled traffic lights to hang a banner. All 62 were arrested. As a result of this direct action and other XR actions that followed, the New York City Council unanimously declared a Climate Emergency in NYC!
Watch the video and read more about this action as reported in Gothamist, Democracy Now!, mediasanctuary.org, CNET, Daily News, CBS NY.
New York Times Media Critique - June 22
In front of the New York Times building on a busy day in June, we blocked traffic to demand the media report the climate crisis like the emergency it is. Brave XR climbers scaled the building and rappelled from the roof of the Port Authority Bus Terminal across the street to hang a “Climate Emergency” banner. In total, over 70 rebels were arrested and the New York Times withdrew its sponsorship of the Oil and Money conference. In the weeks that followed, the XR Media Critique group continued to target the New York Times by standing outside the building delivering our demands with inventive interventions along with our broadside The Climate Times.
Watch the video of the action, and check out coverage over at Democracy Now!, The Guardian, CBS, and the Huffington Post.
Rebel Fest in Washington Square Park - October 7-11
As part of XR’s International Rebellion, we peacefully occupied Washington Square Park, bringing our own tents, food, art materials, and love. We welcomed people of all ages to participate in a full schedule of events, including workshops, teach-ins, trainings, assemblies, art-builds, silk screenings, yoga, swarms, and more. We gained many new members (perhaps even you!) during this creative, regenerative, and informative week. And as is our custom, we left the park exactly the way we found it, then celebrated the success of Rebel Fest with music, dancing, and a potluck picnic.
Wall Street Die-In - October 7
On the first day of our October Rebellion, we staged dramatic die-ins at the heart of NYC’s Financial District to protest its continued funding of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other ecologically destructive activities that cause mass suffering and death. After a robust procession, rebels doused the iconic Wall Street Bull with fake blood to show everyone on Wall Street that they have blood on their hands. Rebels also poured blood on their own bodies as they splayed out on the cobblestones around the statue. We staged another die-in at the New York Stock Exchange, where rebels blocked traffic for over an hour. About 90 rebels were arrested that day, and we cleaned up every drop of blood.
Watch a powerful video by The Years Project and another video by XR. We also grabbed the attention of the New York Times, who wrote a full article about this action.
Times Square Boat Drop - October 10
Who could possibly forget the time we dropped a boat in the middle of Times Square? Rebels swarmed the boat as soon as it moored at the intersection, attaching themselves using chains and super glue. And atop the vessel, superglued by his feet and handcuffed to the mast, stood 16-year-old Nathaniel. The NYPD was forced to close off the entire square for over two hours, arresting 63 rebels in full view of tourists.
Watch the nerve-wracking boat drop in 60 seconds flat, plus a Behind the Scenes look of how it all happened!
Richard McLachlan and Subway Talks
Giving climate talks on the subway takes major guts, and Richard has what it takes to make his message heard. In his words: “Sitting in the subway, I realized that so many New Yorkers have been seriously under-informed by the media, so I began giving talks in subway cars. I have found my voice now. I yell out the truth whenever I can to a subway audience that is surprisingly grateful for more information about this catastrophe. I am retired, I look white, and thus have no real reason to fear the police. I’ll break the law if necessary. It’s an American tradition.”
Richard and other seasoned activists have trained rebels to project their voice and use improv skills to help spread XR’s demands on subways across the city. Here’s a video of Richard in action, and another of other rebels speaking out for the cause.
Meditation Rebellion in Herald Square - November 29
Sometimes the quietest voices can make the loudest sound. On Black Friday, we staged a Meditation Rebellion in Herald Square, sitting in silence and stillness to tell the truth about this crisis. Amidst the buzz of the busiest shopping day in the US, rebels sat together in meditation. This powerful nonviolent direct action, in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi, was an act of resistance to a system of consumerism that asks us to participate in our own destruction. 27 were arrested that day.
Here’s a video of the Meditation, plus press coverage on NBC and in The New York Post. And as a bonus, our Buy Nothing Day Whirl, which happened earlier that same day, went viral on Twitter!
Neighborhood XR Groups
XR has grown so much this past year, and Neighborhood Groups had a significant impact on our growth. As part of XR’s decentralized, self-organizing system, groups that embody our core values have sprung up all over the city and state. From Manhattan to Brooklyn, from Queens to the Bronx, and all the way up to Ithaca, we’ve reached out to members of our local communities to talk about the climate emergency, helping people learn, organize, and take action with us. Neighborhood Groups regularly perform outreach in parks, markets, and other public spaces, and they’ve also marched, swarmed, striked, made art, and hosted Heading for Extinction presentations and other talks. If you haven’t already done so, find a group in your hood, or start your own!
Current NYC Neighborhood Groups include:
Washington Heights, Downtown Westside, Lower East Side, Upper East Side, Hell’s Kitchen, Riverdale/South Yonkers/Marble Hill, South Bronx, Park Slope, North Brooklyn, Bushwick, Flatbush, Prospect & Crown Heights, Clinton Hill/Bed-Stuy/Fort Greene, Long Island City, Jackson Heights
Other New York Groups:
New Paltz/Mid-Hudson, Rockland, Hudson Highlands, Capital Region, and Ithaca.
And XR University Groups:
NYU, Columbia, Cornell, Pratt, The New School, FIT, Hunter, St. John’s, and CCNY
In Memoriam
As we celebrate our achievements in 2019, we must also acknowledge the losses our planet has suffered this year. Let’s take a moment to sit with the painful reality the Earth is facing.
In the past decade, over 450 species have been declared extinct according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Of those species, many perished as a direct result of climate change, like the Rabb’s tree frog named Toughie and the Bramble Cay melomys: small rodents unable to cope with rising sea levels on their native island. We are losing species after species as part of the sixth great extinction, and unless we drastically change our impact on these animals’ habitats and lifestyles, we can expect the current rate of extinctions to continue.
The ice shelves are melting. Earlier this year, scientists found that Greenland’s ice sheet might have reached a tipping point where the shift towards warmer weather stops the ice from refreezing the way it always has. Changes in the environment have already resulted in the ice shelves melting six times faster than they did in 1980. This alarming trend is the biggest contributor to the global threat of rising sea levels, a climate crisis that a recent NASA study said could expose 400 million people to flooding, changing the planet as we know it.
As if that weren’t enough, the Amazon is burning. While fires are not an uncommon phenomena in the Amazon, NASA satellite-based maps found that at least some of the fires we saw this summer were concentrated in a water-stressed section of the rainforest. A growing number of scientists are concerned that fires related to climate change, along with other man-made factors, are on the verge of triggering a significant change in the Amazon’s weather system, which could cause it to self-destruct—a process of self-perpetuating deforestation known as dieback. Combine that with the highest deforestation rate in over a decade, and it’s safe to say our largest, most biodiverse tropical rainforest is in serious peril.
Other parts of the world were ablaze this year too. In Australia, hundreds of climate records were broken in just 90s days, and deadly bushfires killed at least six people and up to 1,000 koalas, severely affecting their survival. In California, more than 94,000 acres were burned as wildfires spread across the state, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Research published this year suggests that California’s wildfires were 500 percent larger than they would have been without human-induced climate change. Fires in Indonesia, Africa, and even arctic regions of Siberia burned at historic rates this year, with climate change exacerbating the damage and destruction.
And we cannot forget those brave environmental activists killed in 2019 and over the past decade. For fifteen years, murders of environmental defenders—people protecting land, water, forests and other natural resources—outweighed the combined deaths of soldiers from the U.K. and Australia deployed to overseas war zones. Global Witness declared the Philippines to be the deadliest country for environmental activists, though Central and South America are also deadly regions, with people fighting against mining and large-scale agriculture projects accounting for the greatest share of deaths. We hold these activists in our memories, and in gratitude.
Even as we mourn for all those that we've lost this year and contemplate how far we have to go, we can't forget how far we've come. More importantly, we couldn't have done all this without you. There is power in our differences and strength in our common humanity. We are all XR. We are all crew.
With love and rage,
Extinction Rebellion NYC