Newsletter 21 – The New Normal: Eco-action sweeps the globe
Welcome to our 21st newsletter!
One month on from our wave of International Rebellion, and the ripples are still being felt.
The environmental narrative has been irrevocably changed: public concern is at an all-time high, with a clear majority of UK voters now backing (comparatively) radical action. The shift of consciousness is spreading fast across the world, with regional governments in New Zealand today joining the British Parliament in declaring a climate emergency.
Our message is also resonating in the cultural world, with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts pledging to prioritise the issue, and the UK’s new poet laureate doing likewise. Revolutions don’t get televised, but maybe rebellions do?
It’s getting increasingly difficult to cover all the amazing work that’s being done in one weekly newsletter. From our continued and staggering growth, both in terms of membership (60,000 new rebels since April 15, and ever rising!) and scope (welcome XR Hong Kong!), to our many policy impacts (‘Runway 3 or not runway 3?’), XR shows no sign of slowing down.
There’s no doubt that we’ve made incredible progress, and there’s no doubt we’ve earned a bit of a rest. But, while we hold regeneration as paramount to a sustainable movement, we’re not looking to rest on our laurels. Even less so in a world where plant-growth is under threat due to the rapid extinction of pollinators, as revealed in a recent, damning UN study. 1 million species face extinction, but some even bigger numbers expose government and corporate priorities: a recent IMF report has calculated $5.2 trillion in fossil-fuel subsidies worldwide.
We have every right to celebrate the progress achieved in the non-violent fight for ecological justice. Next week’s Global Climate Strike serves as a welcome reminder that the (de-)central cause of XR is one shared and furthered by so many others. We’d encourage rebels all over the world to join and support next week’s action. Same goes for so many brilliant initiatives like those of Ende Gelände, Reclaim the Power and Zero Hour, all happening later in the summer.
As for Extinction Rebellion: this rebellion is only beginning. Though the regeneration and debriefing process continues, there are already plans for a number of major actions over the coming months, leading up to the next major Rebellion period in early autumn. In the meantime, groups are encouraged to continue taking autonomous Extinction Rebellion actions, in accordance with our aims and values.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can help, please check out our guide.
To connect to rebels in your local area, get in touch with your nearest XR group. If there’s no active group near you, you can start your own! Stay up to date with local upcoming events here, or start your own event by filling in our talks and trainings form!
If you can’t spare time, but can donate money instead, please see our fundraiser page.
If you’d like to help us organise on a national level, we could use your skills in all sorts of areas from writing to tech to ideas to logistics. To join the effort enroll in ‘XR University’, a buddy scheme for integrating new rebels into the ranks.
If you’re new, or haven’t fully got to grips with everything XR, have a read of this to get to know our history and the principles and values that guide our work.
If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter and would like to sign up the mailing list, you can now do so here!
Contents
Recent Activity
Upcoming Activity
Act now
International Highlights
Announcements
News & Recommended Content
Very longhttps://rebellion.earth/2019/05/16/newsletter-21-the-new-normal-eco-action-sweeps-the-globe/?link_id=1&can_id=d4e96a888a65b26abfffc48652b2e679&source=email-newsletter-21-the-new-normal-eco-action-sweeps-the-globe&email_referrer=email_545489&email_subject=newsletter-21-the-new-normal-eco-action-sweeps-the-globe