Image: XR Indigenous Hewa Bora
Dear rebel,
Since 2018, Extinction Rebellion has been demanding that governments ACT NOW. This past month, the United Nations has added its voice to our calls for immediate action. 1.5 degrees is lost but we are far from done in this fight for our lives. We have everything we need to transition to a more just world without fossil fuels – we just need to do it. Near Goma in the DRC, the local Indigenous Pygmy community did just that last month. First, they protested the deforestation of Virunga National Park and then they planted trees themselves. Rebels and Indigenous communities in Argentina have been forced into action as their very homes are being destroyed, along with vast swathes of the environment. Now is the time to show up, wherever, whenever, and however you can – we’re in this together.
This newsletter is brought to you by XR Global Support, a worldwide network of rebels who help our movement grow and need money to continue this crucial work.
Action Highlight
August 2026 | XR Misiones, Argentina
Photo: XR Misiones
Rebels from XR Misiones, in the northeastern corner of Argentina, have been waging a massive campaign against the multinational forestry company Arauco, which has a long history of environmental destruction and human rights abuses. The government has been facilitating the sale of land to foreign companies and violently repressing those who resist. Arauco now owns 230,000 hectares of land but is grabbing more and targeting the peasant and Indigenous communities who live there. Arauco is having people detained, burning their homes, livestock, and crops in order to steal their land for pine monocultures. Ironically, Arauco is also pushing people off their land so the company can re-classify some of these native forests as reserves that they then claim as carbon offsets, “for the environment”. Follow XR Misiones on Instagram and watch this interview for more background.
Action Update
August 2026 | XR Indigenous Hewa Bora, DRC
Photo: XR Hewa Bora
On August 7 and 8th, 2026, Extinction Rebellion (XR) Indigenous Hewa Bora organized two days of action to call attention to the critical situation facing Virunga National Park. Hewa Bora is a settlement 16 kilometres west of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Virunga National Park is threatened by rampant deforestation and chronic insecurity caused by the presence of armed groups, so on August 7th, dozens of Indigenous women, members of the Pygmy community and other citizens held a sit-in. The Indigenous people's identity, culture, and livelihoods are inextricably linked to the forest. The next day, they took concrete collective action themselves by planting 500 trees around the village. Follow XR Indigenous Hewa Bora on Facebook.
July 2026 | XR Angers, France
Photo: XR Angers
On 17 July, XR rebels in Angers, France, disrupted fast fashion giants Bershka and H&M by spreading a harmless but nasty-smelling substance inside their stores. Arguing that France’s recent ‘anti-fast-fashion law’ doesn’t go far enough, they came up with the campaign “Ôde aux Rats” (pronounced like the French for “sense of smell”, but translates as “Ode to Rats”) to undermine retailers’ marketing tricks and raise awareness. As the foul odour sent shoppers fleeing for the exits, activists held a party outside with music and banners, engaging people in conversation as they left. This is XR France’s second ‘olfactory sabotage’, following a similar action at a mall in Grenoble last year. Follow XR Angers here.
Positive News
Solar buoyed Europe's grid amid record-breaking heat and drought this summer | Grist
Europe’s hottest, driest summer put a massive strain on its energy system. Solar not only held up but generated more power than usual during the heat waves, highlighting its potential to strengthen the grid against climate extremes.
Must Reads
Your gas car works fine. Consider an EV anyway, scientists say. | Grist
We environmentalists know the drill: use it until it breaks. As a general rule, we should strive to prolong the lifetime of our electronic devices, kitchen appliances, and clothing until it is absolutely necessary to replace them. The hyperconsumerist habit of constantly upgrading possessions to bigger and better versions whilst the previous are still functional is a massive threat to our planet.
However, new research shows that when it comes to vehicles, this may in fact not be the most ecologically conscious approach. This article explains that disposing of your fully-operational gas-powered car and purchasing a brand new electric vehicle is actually a better move for the health of the planet. An owner only has to drive an EV 4,400 miles a year to have saved enough emissions to cancel out those released during its manufacture. Of course, it is not realistic that every car owner simultaneously calls the scrap company, nor do we all have the means to finance an electric vehicle. However, the research is certainly a sobering indication of just how damaging gas-powered engines are to the environment. A key take-away for any driver is to be conscious of one's vehicle use and reduce it wherever possible.
AI’s potential climate benefits outweighed by role in boosting fossil fuels, study finds | AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian
A new study has shown that the small boost AI may give to renewable energy is far outweighed by the increased production of oil and gas enabled by AI. This article notes that AI has enabled the fossil fuel industry to already have “more efficient operations, increased production, and shorter development timelines”. This is in addition to the massive use of fossil fuel energy to power the data centres themselves.
This Month's Suggested Action
So, you want to make a difference, but there isn't an activist group in your area that's really your speed, and you don't know where to start? We have suggestions!
This month's suggestion is to get involved in local issues--very local issues. Join the school board or the city council. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Organize a group to pick up trash at the park. Just pick something, get involved, and pay attention. Whatever kinds of problems the people where you live have, there will be some kind of connection to climate change, environmental justice, and democratic process. You just need to keep an eye out and find it, then act on your principles.
The connection might not look like you expect. You might have to suspend judgment, cooperate with people you otherwise disagree with, and listen carefully, but the connection will be there, in the local need. And that's where you start, by serving the local need and finding ways to work with and learn from the people you meet in the process.
Watch: Disobey ~ No To Big Tech | Extinction Rebellion UK
We live in a world where technology has become almost impossible to escape. We communicate through social media, use online platforms for work and study, and use digital services to organise our everyday lives. Yet the Disobey: No To Big Tech discussion by Extinction Rebellion UK, which features speakers Matt Tutt and Rania Youssef, challenges us to look beyond the convenience of technology and ask “who really holds the power in the digital world?” The problem is not technology itself, but the growing influence of corporations that control our digital spaces, collect our data, shape what we see, and turn our attention into profit. Even the environmental costs of technology are often hidden from us, from the energy and water required to run data centres to the extraction of minerals needed for our devices and the growing problem of electronic waste. The digital world may feel invisible, but it is deeply connected to the physical environment and the systems that sustain it.
This is where disobedience becomes an act of reclaiming power. Disobedience is not only about protesting or breaking rules, it can also mean questioning systems we have been taught to accept as normal or inevitable. Individual choices matter, but challenging Big Tech requires collective action by demanding accountability, protecting our data and privacy, supporting alternatives, and questioning economic systems that place profit above people and the planet. Some of the questions we should ask ourselves are “do we want a digital world built around surveillance or privacy? Profit or public interest? Concentrated corporate power or democratic participation? Endless consumption or environmental responsibility? Lastly, what kind of digital world are we creating for our children?” Our attention, data, money, and participation are forms of power, and we should have a say in how that power is used. Perhaps the question is not simply whether we can say “No” to Big Tech, but whether we are willing to imagine and collectively build a digital world that we can say “Yes” to - one where technology serves people, protects democracy and respects the environment. Sometimes, to create something better we first have to disobey what we have been told is inevitable.
Book Review: Flight Behaviour, by Barbara Kingsolver
Flight Behavior is one of those rare novels that address climate change accurately and deeply while telling a great story. It's not set in the distant future, nor is it a metaphor for anything. And while the inciting incident of the story (millions of Monarch butterflies turn up on a sheep farm in the rural American South) hasn't happened yet, it could. Things like that have happened. It's a realistic tale about living with climate change now.
But Barbara Kingsolver is not using her talents to issue a vague plea to "do something." She is instead both witnessing the grief and strangeness and wonder of our age and calling attention to some very specific issues in American culture - issues that have kept us from really tackling the problem. Her book offers no easy or clear solutions, but does suggest a path forward. If more people had taken that path fourteen years ago when Flight Behavior was first published, the world might look very different today.
Film Review: Purpose: A Wellbeing Economies Film
Purpose is a 90 minute documentary about two people trying to get us off GDP as the world’s number one metric. It’s easy to talk about system change and a just transition, but how does that actually happen? Can we get there in a way other than a violent revolution? Katherine Trebeck and Lorenzo Fioramonti believe that we can and that the key is getting government economists and officials to overcome their addiction to the GDP. The film begins by beautifully laying out how the GDP rose to such a position of power and why it makes absolutely no sense now. The story then follows Trebeck and Fioramonti as they try to get the Wellbeing Economy Governments Alliance off the ground. The film is narrated and directed by Martin Oetting, and his opening explanation of his own career pivot may resonate with many. Purpose is a quiet film about people organizing meetings, going to meetings, and trying to get those meetings to become bigger meetings, but anyone working in the climate sphere knows that this is the actual work. Local screenings can be organized, and it’s also available for rent online for a nominal fee from Films for Action.
Readers!
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