Welcome to Newsletter Xtra, where rebel actions and other stories we couldn’t fit into the main Global Newsletter have their moment in the sunlight. This month we bring you reports from across Europe, Australia, Gambia, the US and more…
James Lovelock in 2014. Photo: Petrina Hughes
26 JUL | Abbotsbury, UK James Lovelock, scientist, inventor, creator of the Gaia theory, died at his home in Dorset, England, on his 103rd birthday. Let’s mark his passing by heeding his warnings and doing everything possible to avoid the hell he predicted for us.
19 JUL | Bruges, Belgium A lone rebel glued himself to the security glass over Jan Van Eyck’s 'Madonna with Canon Joris van der Paele' in the Groeninge Museum. His t-shirt says: Belgian politics = climate criminals.
22 JUL | Florence, Italy Two brave activists from Ultima Generazione glued their hands to the glass protective covering of Botticelli’s famous Primavera painting in the Uffizi gallery, before being roughly yanked to the ground by a security guard. “Who do you want to be angry at?” they asked, “At those who glue their hands to a Botticelli painting or at those who continue to destroy civilisation itself despite all warnings? Let us stop this fossil madness before it is too late. Join the resistance!”
9 JUL | Paris, France Turn off the lights! Enjoy this astonishing video of a group of gymnastic French environmental activists switching off advertising and building lights in Paris.
14 JUL | Vienna, Austria Two Last Generation activists, disguised as oil-smeared lobbyists, tried to ‘bribe’ their way past the guards outside the Austrian Federal Chancellery on Ballhausplatz. They wished to ‘thank’ Karl Nehammer for his tireless efforts to ignore the climate emergency.
28 JUL | Gambia On World Nature Conservation Day, volunteers helped to clean some of the country’s beautiful beaches.
21 JUL | Ibiza, Spain Rebels from XR Ibiza staged an action to protest against cruise ships polluting the sea and air, killing dolphins and whales.
25 JUL | Washington DC, USA Seventeen congressional staffers conducted a sit-in protest at the office of Democratic senate majority leader Chuck Schumer. They were protesting a lack of urgent and comprehensive action on the climate crisis by the Democratic Party. Six were arrested.
2 AUG | Boston, USA Members of Extinction Rebellion Boston draped a banner over one of the city’s freeways to urge the Biden administration to declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency.
29 JUL | London, UK Throughout the month, rebels from XR Hackney, XR Buddhists, XR Families, and others have protested outside the offices of Vanguard. Here they are having a Cannibal Feast and dishing up climate destruction! Vanguard is the No1 investor in coal and invests billions in arms, deforestation, climate denial, fake news, and human rights abuses.
6 AUG | Helsinki, Finland Rebels from Elakopina (XR Finland) block a Teboil petrol station in Helsinki. Teboil is owned by the Lukoil group, Russia’s second largest business after the better known Gazprom.
4 AUG | Melbourne, Australia Rebels and other activists took part in a colourful action against logging and harsh new law designed to keep protestors away from areas where logging is happening.The law, which is before the Victoria state upper house, would see people who try to disrupt timber harvesting zones face 12 months jail time or AUS $21,000 in fines.
27 JUL | Turin, Italy ”Welcome to the climate crisis: drought is just the beginning,” reads the banner held by two rebels who chained themselves to the balcony of the Piedmont regional government. They were drawing attention to the severe drought in northern Italy - and also protesting against draconian measures taken by the city authorities against activists. Five people, some of whom have lived, studied, and worked in the city for years, were given orders to leave Turin immediately for one or two years and risk losing their jobs.
28 JUL | Dublin, Eire Irish rebels stood outside the head office of Clontarf Energy to protest its continued investments in fossil fuel exploration, especially in Africa and South America.
19 JULY | The Hague, The Netherlands Rebels jump into a lake in front of the Dutch parliament buildings to draw attention to the climate crisis during the heatwave. Photo: Regio15
10 JUL | Aberpergwm, Wales, UK Welsh rebels occupied the Aberpergwm coal mine, whose planned extension would release an extra 100 million tonnes of CO2.
5 AUG | Brussels, Belgium "Pissing away our future" - a rebel action at the famous Manneken Pis statue of a urinating young boy.
22 JUL | Sweden & Bangladesh Week 205 of Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future climate strike. Every Friday, thousands of young people all over the planet join in, including this young boy from Sylhet, Bangladesh. On 12 August it will be 4 full years since Greta first sat outside the Swedish parliament with her famous placard.
27 JUL | Mexico City, Mexico The Extinction Rebellion symbol spotted in the Mexican capital.
