This radical environmental movement is distinguished by its non-violent actions and its desire to make citizens and governments aware of the need to change paradigms, to stop the destruction of life. Explanation.

Extinction Rebellion defines itself as "an international civil disobedience movement fighting against ecological collapse and climate change."
Often abbreviated to XR, like its logo, it stands for “Extinction Rebellion”. Social, ecological, international, it advocates the use of non-violent civil disobedience to encourage governments to act to avoid tipping points in the climate system, the loss of biodiversity and the risk of social and ecological collapse.
Its logo symbolizes the ongoing mass extinction, with an hourglass in the middle of the Earth indicating that time is running out for many species, an hourglass which is also the X in XR.

History and mode of action of Extinction Rebellion

The origins

The movement was born in Great Britain in 2016, when a group of British activists created Rising Up! A movement aimed at protecting the environment through direct action and civil disobedience. In 2018, some of its members were looking for more effective means of action than traditional street demonstrations. Extinction Rebellion appeared in May 2018, and counts among its founders Tasmin Osmond and George Barda, participants in the social movement Occupy London, as well as Gail Bragbook, Doctor in biophysics and Roger Hallam, farmer and researcher in civil disobedience. But Extinction Rebellion has no leader or hierarchy. This movement draws its inspiration from the actions of the Occupy London movement, the philosophy of protest through non-violence and civil disobedience advocated by Gandhi, as well as those of the suffragettes. Among the founding principles are also the benevolence between members, the non-blaming of individuals and the autonomy of the troops. This is how the movement unites children, the elderly, students and people from all social categories.

The official birth

On October 26, 2018, the British newspaper The Guardian published an op-ed signed by a hundred academics calling for urgent action in the face of the ecological crisis and affirming their support for the Extinction Rebellion collective.

On 31 October 2018, the movement was officially launched with a declaration of rebellion in London in front of the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the British Parliament. Around a thousand people took part, including two members of the British Green Party and Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. A week of activist actions followed, including "Rebellion Day" (17 November 2018), during which the five main bridges in London were blocked. Since then, Extinction Rebellion has spread to many countries such as India, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Colombia, Brazil, the United States, Quebec, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and France.

Extinction Rebellion's mode of action

Its mode of action multiplies spectacular shock actions, such as occupations of urban space in large cities. Its members do not hesitate to attach themselves, using glue, to public buildings, to block road traffic and prevent access to the headquarters of large companies.

Thus, the first "international week of rebellion" was organized from April 15 to 21, 2019. In London, a large number of activists blocked, for about ten days, emblematic places such as the Oxford Circus intersection, Marble Arch and the main shopping street Oxford Street. They organized a "die-in" at the Natural History Museum, where a hundred people lay down under a blue whale skeleton. So many actions that led to more than a thousand arrests and forced the British Parliament, on the proposal of the Labor Party, to declare a "climate emergency". Proof that it can work?

Extinction Rebellion in France

The French branch was born in November 2018 and carried out its first action on March 24, 2019, at Place de la Bourse in Paris, where several hundred activists and sympathizers declared themselves in rebellion. In February 2019, in the columns of the French daily Le Monde and the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, Extinction Rebellion received the support of 260 Swiss, French and Belgian researchers. A die-in in tribute to extinct or disappearing species took place simultaneously in the Grande galerie de l'évolution of the Natural History Museum.

In April 2019, during the "international week of rebellion", French activists, at the initiative of Greenpeace, ANV-COP21 and Friends of the Earth, blocked an antenna of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, and the Total, EDF and Société Générale towers in La Défense. The second "week of international rebellion" began in France on October 5, 2019 with the occupation and blockade of the Italie Deux shopping center in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. The activists then occupied, from October 7, the Place du Châtelet and the Pont au Change in Paris.

In mid-April 2022, between the two rounds of the presidential election, a thousand people took over the Grands Boulevards in Paris at the Porte de St Denis, transforming the place into a large agora where everyone could express their views on climate inaction and the solutions to be provided.

Four major demands of Extinction Rebellion

The movement articulates its actions around four key demands:

1. Recognition of the seriousness of the current ecological crises and honest communication on the subject

The government, elected officials and businesses must recognize the unprecedented threats that weigh today on the entire biosphere, including humanity. They must openly assume their share of responsibility for the destruction of ecosystems, climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and recognize the profound incompatibility between the current mode of economic development based on growth and the pursuit of profit, and the limits of our planet.

2. Immediate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon neutrality in 2025, through reduced consumption and a planned energy descent.

"Good intentions", "non-binding agreements" and "roadmaps" will not change the situation. The government must be forced to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.

3- An immediate halt to the destruction of ocean and land ecosystems, which is causing a mass extinction of the living world.

The ongoing extermination of life on Earth is comparable in scale to the great geological extinctions. The destruction of ecosystems and animal and plant species through overexploitation and pollution are a direct consequence of the development of our modern societies. Compensatory measures do nothing to stop the ongoing mass extermination. Biodiversity must be recognized and respected for its intrinsic value and not only for the “services” it provides. We must fight so that societies humbly recognize their place within the biosphere and undertake an ecological restoration process commensurate with the damage caused.

4- The creation of a citizens' assembly responsible for deciding on the measures to be put in place to achieve these objectives and guaranteeing a fair and equitable transition.

Supported by many well-known people, from the English actress Emma Thompson to Anne Hidalgo, from the Geneva city hall to Nobel Prize winners, and reviled by some politicians, Extinction Rebellion fascinates and divides. In any case, in four years, and despite the pandemic, the movement has succeeded in making itself eminently visible and media-friendly through its hard-hitting actions, to the point of being scrutinized even by other environmental movements. Eco-fascist for some, good-natured for others, an unrealistic utopia that offers no concrete solution for still others... It's up to you to judge.