Extinction Rebellion is a campaign group demanding governments take urgent action on climate change. Known as ‘XR‘, the group has a direct action approach to protest. The movement calls for mass economic disruption using civil disobedience to halt the destruction of the planet and its wildlife and prevent catastrophic climate change. Unlike many other campaign groups, XR activists are often willing to go to jail as a symbolic act.
The group has become very popular, very fast. There are now XR groups in the US, Ghana, and New Zealand as well as Western Europe. DeSmog has been following XR‘s evolution from its inception in October 2018.