Web version in French, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese and English. 
Photo: XR Norge
Dear Rebel,
“In love and rage” is XR’s signature, and it sums up what drives many of us to keep going. This month’s stories highlight both the rage and the amazing actions which manage to never lose sight of the love. If we lose our humanity, we lose what we’re fighting for. Read on to learn more about finding beauty, joy, and community as we protest fossil fuels in Norway, extractivist agriculture in Bolivia, and water contamination in the UK. And don’t miss this month’s breathtaking six- minute quick watch. Outrage into action and love into stewardship.
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
Norway’s Climate Contradiction is Now Impossible to Ignore
Photo: XR Norge
2025 | Norway
Norway may pride itself on its pristine waters and sleek electric cars, but behind the scenes, this oil-rich nation is by far Europe’s biggest producer and exporter of oil and gas. Not only that, but they’re drilling for more – even as scientists and citizens alike demand urgent change.
XR Norway campaigned for over a year to put the country’s contradictory stance on hydrocarbon extraction firmly at the top of the agenda for the parliamentary elections held on 7-8 September.
In the runup to the vote, climate activists led demands for the next government to present a genuine, science-based roadmap to phase out fossil fuels. August saw rebels join forces with the Nordic Climate Justice Coalition to rally protesters from across Europe. Hundreds of campaigners took to the streets and to the sea in the biggest wave of civil disobedience the country has ever seen against Big Oil.
In one headline-grabbing action, more than 200 protesters participated in a spectacular land-and-sea blockade that shut down Norway’s largest oil refinery, Mongstad, for a full 36 hours. Greta Thunberg, Norwegian singer, Aurora, and French composer, Yann Tiersen were among those campaigners who blocked site entrances and circled tankers in kayaks and sailboats.
Rebels also took over Oslo’s main street, Karl Johans Gate, and staged an occupation of DnB Bank’s headquarters to highlight the institution’s significant financing of the oil industry. Civil disobedience also swept through Arendal Week, Norway’s most important political forum, with rebels shutting down oil giants’ events and exposing government greenwashing.
With the electoral votes now counted, the minority Labour Party has narrowly won a second term in power. Their leader, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, says Norway will continue to explore for new oil and gas fields “but also to take forward technological steps, cut emissions, and live up to our climate obligations”.
This position is at odds with the urgency of climate science, and so XR Norway continues its demands to PHASE OUT FOSSIL NOW! Follow XR Norge here.
Photo: XR Norge
Action Roundup
Photos: XR Bolivia
August 29-30 | Sucre, Bolivia
XR Bolivia went to Bolivia’s II National Forum, "Agroecology in the Bicentennial – Sowing the future from ground up," on August 29-30 along with many other organizations,and communities. XR Bolivia has an “unwavering commitment to agroecology as the urgent and viable alternative to the extractivist, predatory, and colonial model that threatens the life, territories, and future of Bolivia”. The group has five demands:
Public policies that prioritize food sovereignty.
Real protection of territories against megaprojects, mining, and deforestation.
Recognition and support for indigenous family and peasant agriculture.
Fair financing and access to local markets with differentiated prices for agroecological producers.
Active participation of youth, women, and indigenous peoples in decision-making.
Follow XR Bolivia to learn more.
Photo: XR UK
24 August 2025 | UK
On 24 August 2025, the UK Rebels’ Dirty Water Campaign launched the World Water Wedding Campaign to continue exposing an ongoing, yet growing national injustice: waterbodies across the UK are being contaminated by water treatment companies, and communities are left feeling the consequences. Access to clean, safe water is a fundamental human right, yet in the UK, water is being treated as a commodity to be bought, sold, and increasingly privatised by corporations with government approval. The Dirty Water Campaign sheds light on how water companies are legally allowed to dump untreated wastewater through sewer overflows, and, more importantly, how this practice has become increasingly frequent. Estimates suggest there were nearly a million sewage discharges in 2024. Water companies profit while polluting, greenwashing, and endangering communities and wildlife.
Through symbolic “water weddings,” UK Rebels are pledging lifelong protection to their local waters, turning outrage into action and love into stewardship. Activities include heartfelt ceremonies along riverbanks, where participants pledge to protect their local waters, challenging water companies and polluters. The campaign runs from August 24 to September 24, 2025, building to a global World Water Wedding on March 22, 2026.
17 August | Medellin, Colombia
On Sunday August 17th, XR Medellin organised a gorgeous Corner of Good Living (El Rincón del Buenvivir) at the “Bazaar of Trust” in Medellin’s Botanical Garden. It was a beautiful day, which emphasised the importance of community and joy in activism. See the videos and photo gallery
here.
Photo: XR Medellin
Positive News
The World's Largest Sand Battery Just Went Live in Finland
Forget carbon capture - the world's largest sand battery has been working in Finland since June 2025, and it’s actually even better than they expected. This marks a significant step in making renewables more able to withstand the intermittency of sun and wind. Read the full story here.
Must Read
Africa Is Buying a Record Number of Chinese Solar Panels
Nations across Africa are increasingly turning to the sun to meet their energy needs using Chinese-manufactured solar panels. Between 2024 and 2025, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, Chad, and others more than doubled their imports of solar panels from China, with Algeria’s imports increasing by 6,300%. This meteoric rise in solar use in Africa inspires hope for a greener future. Learn more
here.
Quick Watch
Rise: From One Island to Another
Two Poets. Two Islands. Same Sand. Same Ice. Same Rising Water.
From the Marshall Islands and Greenland, poets Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner and Aka Niviâna use the power of spoken word to discuss connection, climate, colonization, community, and change. The film’s photographer and filmmaker, Peter Sinclair captures grounding images of Greenland and the Marshall Islands, conveying the vastness of the land’s beauty. You can enjoy the six-minute short film here.
Long Watch
Man Spends 30 Years Turning Degraded Land into Massive Forest – Fools & Dreamers
Nestled in the mountains of Aotearoa (“Ah-oh teh-ah ROH-ah”) (commonly called New Zealand) is Hinewai, a 1,500 hectare Nature Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary. In this engaging, 30-minute short film, botanist Hugh Wilson shares his experience as the manager of Hinewai and the benefits of leaving the land alone.
Book Review
Ecological Memory by Caroline Ailanthus
Caroline Ailanthus’s Ecological Memory is a gentle yet powerful reimagining of the post collapse story. Instead of centering destruction and despair, it turns toward healing, personal, ecological, and communal. At its heart are Elzy Rodriguez, a young woman with fractured memories, and Andy Cote, an ecologist carrying quiet grief. Their search for the forest Elzy recalls from childhood unfolds as a layered metaphor for memory, identity, and restoration. Their relationship grows with authenticity, balancing Elzy’s raw vulnerability with Andy’s reflective calm.
What sets this novel apart is its seamless blend of ecology and narrative. Concepts such as agroecology, ecological observation, and ecological memory (which entails the ability of ecosystems to recover after disturbance), emerge naturally in the story. Rather than feeling preachy, these ideas enrich the world, giving readers space to reflect on how care for the land mirrors care for the self. The slower, meditative pacing may challenge readers accustomed to fast moving plots, but here it becomes a strength, inviting moments of pause and reflection.
The book carries a quiet defiance against the noise and speed of modern storytelling. The most enduring message is that every act of care, whether “planting a seed, tending a garden, remembering a forest” (Ailanthus, 2019), is itself an act of healing. Ecological Memory is not only a novel about survival, but about resilience, connection, and the possibility of renewal. For readers seeking thoughtful, environmentally grounded fiction, it offers a story that lingers long after the final page, leaving behind both tenderness and hope.
Avoid Amazon. Support local bookshops in person when you can. Online buy your books at Bookshop or Hive (UK).
Ancestors of XR
Rachel Carson 1907-1964
Born in rural Pennsylvania in 1907, Rachel Carson was a marine biologist-turned-writer whose courageous truth-seeking helped lay the foundations for today’s global environmental movement. When she enrolled at Pennsylvania College for Women in 1925, her intention was to become a teacher – but she became fascinated by biology, and pivoted to studying zoology instead. During the Great Depression, she had to drop out of graduate school and took a job writing a radio series about marine life, which led to other commissions. With titles like “Help Your Child to Wonder”, much of her writing was designed to awaken people to the magic and beauty of the living world.
An ecologist before that science was even defined, Carson was acutely aware of how human behaviours impact the environment. By 1941 she was an aquatic biologist at the US Bureau of Fisheries (only the second woman they ever hired), where she saw first-hand the harm to ecosystems caused by pesticides like DDT.
She turned to writing full-time in 1951 and went on to win numerous accolades – her non-fiction book, The Sea Around Us was even turned into an Academy Award-winning film. In 1962, Carson published her famous book, Silent Spring as a wake-up call to citizens, exposing the dangers of indiscriminate chemical use in nature. An instant bestseller thanks to her vivid storytelling and meticulous research, Silent Spring ranks among the books that changed the world.
Carson’s ideas were revolutionary because she rejected the prevailing paradigm of ‘conquering nature’ through technological progress, arguing instead that by disrupting the delicate balance of ecosystems, we harm animals, plants – and ultimately ourselves. Despite fierce resistance from the powerful chemical industry, her ideas were taken up by President John F Kennedy, and she testified before the US Senate in 1963, eventually paving the way for new environmental protection laws.
Rachel Carson died in 1964, but her legacy lives on generations later, with today’s climate activists seeing in her a symbol of science-driven advocacy and courage. Sixty years on, speaking truth to power is still just as urgent.
Worth a Second Look
A few of the campaigns described in
this blog post from 2020 are still active, but many others stand as completed success stories, proof that people power matters.
Get involved in XR wherever you are! Check out our global website, learn more about our movement, and connect with rebels in your local area. Forward this newsletter to a friend. If this was forwarded to you, join us and subscribe to the XR Global Newsletter. If you have any questions or feedback, we want to hear from you. Get in touch at [email protected]
P.S. Forwarding this newsletter to one person is an easy way you can help the planet today!
