Intro to XR

Hello and Welcome

Great to have you here!

This online 'book' aims to explain what Extinction Rebellion is, what we do and why, our aims, methods, principles and strategy.

You may be reading this because you are thinking of becoming involved with Extinction Rebellion (XR) and want to learn more about us first. Or perhaps you have already decided to take action, in which case you may find what you are looking for in Get Involved (the second book on this shelf). Either way, thank you for being here!

Intro to XR talks on Zoom

The content of this Intro to XR book that you are reading now reflects the talk and vice versa. One difference is that there is more discussion and room for questions during the talk so it's more interactive and you get to meet other people new to XR. This book, on the other hand, is condensed in places but contains links to resources and further information for people interested in a deeper dive.

The talk takes place every week on a Monday, Tuesday or Sunday evening (see schedule) from 19:00-20:30 including Q&A.

View the schedule and register for the Intro to XR talk on zoom here.

News

If you don't already receive emails from XRUK please do join our mailing list. This is the main way we keep in touch and let you know what is going on. Please follow the following link to our website and leave your details in the 'Sign up for News' box.

Key links:

Who are XR? And Why Direct Action?

Extinction Rebellion (XR) is a worldwide movement which uses nonviolent direct action (NVDA) to force those in power to act on the climate and nature global emergency.
Our governments have not protected us and conventional campaigning has failed. We are almost out of time to change course.

Direct Action (also known as civil disobedience) has a history of achieving change where other methods have failed; for example the Suffrage Movement gained the vote for women by their actions.

We act now for the sake of all life on earth. We aim to halt mass extinction and minimise the risk of social collapse. We will not be led quietly to extinction by elites and politicians.

References:
[1]: In 1988, climate scientist James Hansen testified before the US congress, provoking the New York Times headline: ‘Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate’
[2]: International Energy Agency 2024 report
[3]: World Wildlife Fund Living Planet report 2022

More information:
Read our original Declaration of Rebellion
Learn more about the need for direct action on our website: So what do we do?

How XR started

In 2018 a report was released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - part of the United Nation. It stated, “There is a need for urgent action: The world needs to undergo an urgent and rapid transformation to a global clean energy economy.”

This became the catalyst for the formation of XR. In October 2018 we launched a rebellion against the UK Government due to its inaction on the global climate and nature emergencies. Around 1500 people joined us outside the Houses of Parliament to read a Declaration of Rebellion. This powerful and emotional statement ends with these words:

We refuse to bequeath a dying planet to future generations by failing to act now. We act in peace, with ferocious love of these lands in our hearts. We act on behalf of life.

Since then XR has evolved into a worldwide movement attempting to bring about meaningful action on the worldwide climate and nature emergency.



Our successes

XR has played a huge part in the explosion of public concern about the climate emergency, which is a very potent force, increasing pressure on politicians and business to take action. Success in environmental movements can be hard to measure - ‘wins’ can be as a result of a number of factors and long legal tussles - however here are some of our most obvious successes.

I want to tell you that back in the 90s we were facing a 6 degree world and we are not facing that [now] ... we are looking at much much less and that is a credit to all of those [taking action on climate change].
Farhana Yamin, climate lawyer, speaking at the Defend our Juries action 29th Feb 2025

National

the big one crowd 2.jpg

Local

HorseHillCase_SupremeCourt_AC_21-6-23--6677 2.jpg

References:
[1]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48126677
[2]: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.14978

The Climate & Nature Emergency

The science is clear: we face an unprecedented global climate and nature emergency.

The effects of this emergency include floods, wildfires, extreme weather, mass loss of wildlife, crop failure and the mass displacement of people and loss of life. This is not a distant prospect - these effects are being suffered right now, and will continue to be disproportionately suffered, by those who have done the very least to cause the crisis. The chart below shows the gaps between what’s necessary, what’s being promised, and what’s actually being delivered in terms of real world policies. Latest measurements show that we have already bust through the 1.5 degree guardrail for the year 2024 which was 1.6 degrees above pre-industrial levels. [1]

climate action tracker nov24 resized.jpg [2]

The amount of heating may not sound much, but there is a real danger of it leading to tipping points and feedback loops. These are irreversible domino effects beyond which there is little we can do to control run-away warming. Plus, right now, every 0.1 degree of warming places 100 million people in unliveable temperatures. [3]

On top of this, many scientists believe that habitat destruction and biodiversity loss is equally, if not even more, important and that we are right now in planet earth’s sixth mass extinction, driven by unsustainable human activities.

To have any effect on slowing down global heating and loss of nature, we need urgent systemic and long-term changes to how we do things. XR’s purpose is to highlight the fact that our window of opportunity is closing rapidly and compel those in power to act.


References: [1] : https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/2024-was-first-year-above-15c-global-warming-scientists-say-2025-01-10/
[2]: https://climateactiontracker.org/
[3]: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/74/12/812/7808595

Climate and Nature Quiz - full answers and references

1 Water Pollution
UK water pollution has been in the news a lot lately. Approximately how many times was raw sewage discharged into rivers and seas by privatised UK water companies in 2023?

Answer
According to the Environment Agency data, in 2023, privatised UK water companies discharged raw sewage into English and Welsh rivers and seas approximately 464,056 times. Even more alarmingly, the recent State of Our Rivers Report State of Our Rivers shows that storm overflows contribute to at least 11% of total ecological health standard failures in English rivers – this is the real consequence of the shocking numbers in today’s gory data. Sewage is just part of the picture. Our rivers are in crisis, facing a cocktail of pollution loads on monumental scales.

2 Nature
Since records began in 1970, wildlife populations have dropped around the globe, by an average of how much?

Answer
According to the World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report 2024, the average size of wildlife populations has fallen by a staggering 73% between 1970-2020. The web of life that sustains us all is in crisis and the decline is caused by habitat loss, overexploitation, pollution, and climate change. But we can still stop the decline.

3 Food Prices
Global heating is already causing harvests to fail, with knock-on impacts on the cost of food. How much was added to the UK average household food bill by climate change for 2022 and 2023?

Answer
Independent analysis commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) found that, compared to 2021, British households likely paid an extra £605 for food in 2022 and 2023 due to climate change impacts and historically high oil, gas and fertiliser prices. Climate change threatens our food supply and will cause our food bills to climb ever higher.

4 The Cost of Going Green
The UK government often talks about the cost of measures to ‘green’ our economy. Which is cheaper – preventing climate breakdown or dealing with its consequences?

Answer
A 2024 study published in the journal Nature investigated the specific effects of global warming on the economy for the first time, taking into account chain reactions and quantifying the enormous economic damage. If we take action today and meet the two-degree target, the cost of climate protection measures will be six times cheaper than doing nothing. To date, climate change has caused over $3.6 trillion [£2.85 trillion] in damage since the year 2000 and, without urgent and significant action, global GDP could drop by up to 22 per cent by 2100.

5 Cows
Cows are ruminants; their stomachs allow them to digest fibre-rich foods. This produces methane expelled as gas when cows belch. Approximately how many pounds of methane does one cow produce annually?

Answer
Every year, a single cow produces between 154 to 264 pounds of methane. There are around 1.5 billion cows raised for meat production all over the world. Not counting for the emissions of any other livestock, 1.5 billion cattle emit at least 231 billion pounds of methane gas every year.

Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2) when trapping heat in the atmosphere. The gas is estimated to be responsible for about 30% of the rise in temperatures since the Industrial Revolution.

6 Plastics and Seas
How many tons of plastic are estimated to enter seas annually?

Answer The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that 14 million tons of plastic enter our seas annually. That’s equivalent to the weight of five blue whales entering our environment every hour. Scientists believe there could be up to 10,000 times more plastic particles on the sea floor than on its surface and many scientists have warned that by 2050, more plastic will be in the sea than fish (by weight).

More information:
If you want to know more about the science of climate and ecological breakdown, visit our webpage Emergency on Planet Earth. Dr Emily Grossman (with the support of the XR Scientists community and a wide range of experts) lays out the facts. Embedded on the first page you will find our two part talk, updated June 2023 -
Part One - Heading for Extinction
Part Two - And What To Do About It

Our Demands

We have three demands of the Government and others in positions of power:

1. Tell the Truth

All institutions must communicate the danger we are in. We must be clear about the extreme cascading risks humanity now faces, the injustice this represents, its historic roots, and the urgent need for rapid political, social and economic change.

2. Act Now

Every part of society must act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025* and begin protecting and repairing nature immediately. The whole of society must move into a new precautionary paradigm, where life is sacred and all are in service to ensuring its future.

3. Decide Together

We demand a culture of participation, fairness and transparency. The Government must create and be led by a Citizens’ Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice. Only the common sense of ordinary people will help us navigate the challenging decisions ahead.

*When XR was launched in 2018, 2025 was a realistic date, seven years in the future, with time to do what was needed. We keep this target to show how much time has been lost.

More information:
More about Citizens Assemblies
Video Why have a Citizens' Assembly

Our Principles and Values

Anyone who follows these core principles and values can take action in the name of Extinction Rebellion.

1. We have a shared vision of change: creating a world that is fit for generations to come.

2. We set our mission on what is necessary: mobilising 3.5% of the population to achieve system change – such as “momentum-driven organising” to achieve this. .

3. We need a regenerative culture: creating a culture which is healthy, resilient and adaptable.

4. We openly challenge ourselves and this toxic system: leaving our comfort zones to take action for change.

5. We value reflecting and learning: following a cycle of action, reflection, learning, and planning for more action. Learning from other movements and contexts as well as our own experiences.

6. We welcome everyone and every part of everyone: working actively to create safer and more accessible spaces.

7. We actively mitigate power: breaking down hierarchies of power for more equitable participation.

8. We avoid blaming and shaming: we live in a toxic system, but no one individual is to blame.

9. We are a nonviolent network: using nonviolent strategy and tactics as the most effective way to bring about change.

10. We are based on autonomy and decentralisation: we collectively create the structures we need to challenge power.

More information:

Current XRUK Strategy

XRUK Strategy 2025-26


"In what began as an audacious act of collective imagination, Extinction Rebellion transformed climate activism, reshaping the boundaries of what is possible. It was expected that if this movement did not achieve something enormous and win, then it would fail and disappear. In an act that seems rooted in the core of our DNA, we refused to obey. We are still here, and there’s work to be done."

As a Nonviolent Direct Action Movement, our Strategy has to change and evolve to be suitable for the times we are in. Our Strategy Team is constantly in the process of learning from the experiences of XR in the UK and around the world, as well as other activist groups, to work out where we should go next.

Pour a brew, get comfy and delve into the XRUK Strategy 2025-26

For historic context, read the XRUK Strategy 2023-24


An owl holding an XR symbol with text saying xRUK Stragtegy 2025-26

Glossary

Jargon is useful shorthand within a group but we know it can be unhelpful to new joiners so we have created this page to help.

If you come across jargon and acronyms during in-person meetings, you can hold up a 'C' shape with your hand to ask for a clarification. You might even do this if you know what it means if it might help other people in the meeting to have it explained.

Terms

Acronyms