The XR activists who took on oil giant Shell – and won

By Extinction Rebellion Staff, Extinction Rebellion

Six Extinction Rebellion activists have been acquitted in a landmark verdict at Southwark Crown Court this afternoon.

The Right to Remain Silent

By Rosemary Harrison, Resilience.org

It's just one point of view of one morning of one rebellion, it's just one drop in the narrative ocean, but my blood ran so cold when I saw the bill recently proposed to further strengthen the police and weaken the people during protests that I had to warm it up again somehow.

If Citizens Assemblies are the way forward, why is XR no longer endorsing the Scottish Governments Climate Citizens Assembly?

By Justin Kenrick, Bella Caledonia

If the Government cannot create a genuine Assembly process, do we need to find the resources for civil society to do so? Should this involve inviting the Government to become one stakeholder in a process that is designed to challenge us all to make a path ahead that can be an example for other countries to follow?

Beyond authenticity: the politics of agrarian localism

By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future

I’m thinking of these present two posts more as a kind of position statement on the politics underlying my forthcoming book, A Small Farm Future, and its arguments for renewable agrarianism, using the debate about XR as my foil.

Our power comes from acting without escape from our pain

By Gail Bradbrook, Jem Bendell, Resilience.org

As global heating speeds up, humanity can no longer assume to control our destiny. We can let that tough realisation sit heavily with us, but then breathe and redouble our commitment to life and love, no matter what the odds, opposition or outcomes

It’s Not as Simple as Rebellion

By Tim DeChristopher, YES! magazine

As we find ourselves with a set of challenges and opportunities wildly different than what any of us could have predicted, common sense demands that the climate movement be as adaptable, humble, and intersectional as it is rebellious.

Extinction Rebellion: ‘Terror Threat’ is a Wake-Up Call for How the State Treats Environmental Activism

By Marc Hudson, The Conversation

Extinction Rebellion was once criticised by other activists for “love bombing the cops”, but now it has found itself labelled a terror threat. In a guide sent to teachers by counter-terrorism police, the non-violent group’s logo and activities were described to help them spot students who may be involved.

Common Sense for the 21st Century (excerpt)

By Roger Hallam, Resilience.org

What does a real Climate Emergency action plan look like? The answer is defined by the science − by the physics and chemistry. Some find it hard to imagine this is actually happening. Some think it seems ‘unrealistic’. But ask yourself about the alternative of risking the collapse of civilisation, the death of billions of people and the extinction of much of life on earth? Is that ‘realistic’? No economy on a dead planet.

Has Extinction Rebellion Got the Right Tactics

By Chay Harwood, Marc Hudson, New Internationalist

All agree we need to take action for climate change, but some environmentalists find the Extinction Rebellion’s tactics difficult to get behind. Environmental campaigners Chay Harwood and Marc Hudson provide the arguments for and against them.

By Claiming to be ‘Beyond Politics’, Extinction Rebellion is Undermining its Own Cause

By Paddy Bettington, Open Democracy

XR has tried to put itself ‘beyond politics’, steering clear of parliamentary machinations, in a bid to broaden its appeal and express the urgency and scale of the crisis to as many people as possible. But with the most important election of a generation looming in the UK, is it now time for XR to use its reach to grapple directly with the workings of this country?

This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook: Review

By Suki Ferguson, Red Pepper

This Is Not A Drill has been written to clarify, inform, inspire and equip the people who are undecided yet interested in moving deeper into the climate action zeitgeist XR has ingeniously catalysed.

Extinction Rebellion: Four More (Unconvincing) Criticisms

By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future

Nah, there’s nothing deathly or millenarian about the XR activists I know. They’re just ‘ordinary’, flawed, caring (middle-class) people like me, full of love and zest for life, and really, really scared about the deathly devastation that climate change threatens to wreak upon the world and the life they hold dear, unless governments act radically and immediately.