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HUNDREDS GATHER IN CENTRAL LONDON FOR EARTH DAY: FAITH GROUPS, ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS AND PARLIAMENTARIANS UNITE IN CALL FOR CLEAN WATER, CLEAN AIR AND AN END TO FOSSIL FUEL EXPANSION

On a morning of warm spring light, several hundred people processed down Whitehall to Parliament Square to mark Earth Day 2026: an act of collective care for the natural world at a moment when the government’s record leaves much to answer for.

The action brought together a broad coalition of faith groups, environmental movements and concerned citizens under a shared demand: that the government fulfil its duty to protect clean water, clean air and wildlife, and end its support for fossil fuel expansion.

Moving in slow, deliberate procession and accompanied by XR Rhythms, the procession closed Whitehall to traffic as it moved through the heart of the capital, led by banners carrying words including “A BETTER WORLD IS POSSIBLE” and “PROTECT OUR PLANET”.

On arrival at Parliament Square, XR Buddhists led a walking meditation around the square: a moment of collective stillness and intention at the seat of political power. Sacred Earth Activism and Christian Climate Action then held a ceremony of dedication to the earth; an act of reverence that organisers say reflects something the movement is determined to reclaim: the understanding that care for the natural world is not merely political, but sacred.  

Sean Collins from XR Buddhists said, “Today, many groups of multiple faiths have come together to remember we are not seperate from the planet we live on.

Over our common theme of using creativity and artistry against division and fear, we come together to try to heal some of the rifts in a political, environmental landscape which cause damage to the Earth.”

Earth Day 2026 reflects a growing understanding that the natural world is not a separate concern from the struggles for justice, health and democracy: it is their foundation. Healthy rivers, clean air and stable seasons are not environmental abstractions; they are the conditions on which every community depends. The breadth of today’s coalition speaks to that recognition; when the Earth is under threat, so is everything built upon it.

The Earth Day Coalition’s demands are specific. Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace’s joint assessment of Labour’s first year in government found meaningful early progress on energy but serious shortfalls on nature protection, and a poor record on justice and democracy, concluding that the government must do significantly better across all areas. Danny Gross, of Friends of the Earth, spoke about their ongoing campaign to hold the government to account.

“The action marks a moment of growing momentum for Extinction Rebellion UK. We have been present on the streets in huge numbers with the Together Alliance at the end of March that drew hundreds of thousands to central London.”

Jennifer Massey from XRUK said: “I came today as a mother. The Earth that is under threat is the same Earth my children will inherit. That is why we stand together; not as separate campaigns, but as people who understand that everything we love depends on a living world.”

Campaigners from Dirty Water were present to demand that the government address the root cause: a privatised water industry that has extracted billions in dividends while accumulating debt and polluting the waterways it was trusted to protect.

“England’s rivers remain among the filthiest in Europe. In 2024 alone, an estimated 994,499 sewage discharges occurred: almost one every thirty seconds, up sixty per cent on the previous year,” said Denise Ashurst, from Dirty Water.

Despite scientific consensus that new fossil fuel projects are incompatible with climate safety, the government has continued to leave open the door to Rosebank, the UK’s largest undeveloped oil field. Campaigners from Fossil Free London and Axe Drax were present to name a fundamental contradiction: a government that speaks of clean energy while propping open the door to new extraction.

Together in Peace and Unity we will act to protect our only home. Everyone is welcome to join Extinction Rebellion.

__________________

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Earth Day 2026: Global theme: “Our Power, Our Planet.”

Sewage discharges 2024: Environment Agency storm overflow spill data, GOV.UK

Rosebank: The UK’s largest undeveloped oil field; its continued development is opposed by scientific consensus against new oil and gas extraction.

Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace’s joint assessment of Labour’s first year in government: In July 2025. one year after the last general election, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace assessed how the Labour government has performed on climate and nature action.

The Earth Day Coalition included: Axe Drax, Christian Climate Action, Extinction Rebellion UK, Fossil Free London, Friends of the Earth, Green Party, Greenpeace, Red Rebels London, Sacred Earth Activism, XR Buddhists.

Love & Rage: With fire in our hearts, we will spark and sustain a spirit of creative, nonviolent rebellion to disrupt and pressure the perpetrators of climate and ecological injustice and drive systemic change through equal participation in power. Join the Love and Rage Telegram chat here: https://t.me/+75Og-3iuH2w1NDVk 

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Contact: [email protected] | 07546 291378 | 07552 122901

Fourteen peace campaigners were arrested during a 6 hour blockade of the main gates at RAF Lakenheath on Monday 6th April. RAF Lakenheath is used exclusively by the United State Air Force and is sending fighter jets to the Iran war. 

The Peace protestors used heavy-duty locks to attach themselves to a car, a large multi-coloured peace symbol and each other, completely blocking the main gates of RAF Lakenheath from 6am. A second gate into RAF Lakenheath was also shut down by peace campaigners for 4 hours this morning from 6am to 10am.

This non-violent direct action follows a week-long International Peace Camp at the base that ended yesterday, Monday 6th April. The airbase is owned by the RAF but used exclusively by the US Air Force and is sending fighter jets to the war in Iran. RAF bases Lakenheath and nearby Mildenhall have also supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza and nuclear bombs returned to Lakenheath last summer. Marie Walsh, a retired teacher from Didcot said: “We are here to interrupt business as usual, and to say in the name of humanity ‘STOP’”.

One of the lock-on protesters, Rajan Naidu from Birmingham said: “Through being on British sovereign territory this base is used by the US to pursue an illegal war of aggression, raining death and misery on the people of Iran. The base is also being used to aid and abet Israeli war crimes and genocide against the Palestinian people. Britain, by allowing these crimes against humanity is complicit in them, and therefore culpable for them”.

Well over 100 fighter jets and bombers have been deployed from RAF Lakenheath for the attack on Iran. RAF Mildenhall has also been actively involved in the illegal war of aggression by providing refuelling for bombers deploying to the Middle East.

On Friday 16th February 2026 three Israeli F-35I were observed arriving at RAF Mildenhall and then departing for Israel on the18th February as filmed and published on Military Aviation YouTube Channel. The Israeli media reported the delivery of the new aircraft on 20th January. The Israeli F-35I has been used in attacks against Gaza, Yemen and Iran. 

LAP believes US nuclear B61-12 bombs have already arrived at RAF Lakenheath. 

Evidence of US B61-12 nuclear bombs coming to Lakenheath is provided by Nukewatch UK. Nukewatch is a network of volunteers that monitors and tracks movements of weapons of mass destruction in order to break the secrecy and inform the public about nuclear weapons in the UK. The inside story of how America sent nuclear weapons to Britain

Background:
The Alliance is made up of 65 organisations opposed to the stationing and operation of nuclear weapons in Suffolk or anywhere else, and supporting peace-making approaches to security. All LAP actions are non-violent.

For details of RAF Lakenheath’s war crimes and involvement in illegal wars in Iran and Gaza see: Letter To Base Commanders 30 March 2026 – Lakenheath Alliance For Peace

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Hundreds of thousands of people filling the streets of London: colour, music, bodies taking up space with intention and joy. For those of us who have spent years learning how to do this, who lived through the policing bill protests and the injunctions and the slow bureaucratic grind designed to make organising feel impossible, it was something to stand inside and just breathe. This is what it looks like when the walls get pushed back out.

The very same day as the Together march, the third “No Kings” protest took place in the USA, drawing an estimated eight million participants across more than 3,300 sites nationwide. Their message felt aligned: “power belongs to the people – not to wannabe kings or their billionaire cronies.”

XR was part of the climate justice bloc of the Together procession, alongside Campaign against Climate Change, Degrowth London, Greenpeace, Faith for the Climate, Fossil Free London, Friends of the Earth, War on Want and others: because climate justice, racial justice and economic justice are not separate causes that happened to find each other on a Saturday afternoon. They share the same roots. And increasingly, the same opposition.

To understand this, it helps to follow the money.

In 2016, three days after the Brexit vote, Jeffrey Epstein emailed Peter Thiel: Palantir founder, early Facebook investor, architect of some of the most powerful surveillance technology on earth. “Brexit,” he wrote, “just the beginning.” The beginning of what? “Return to tribalism. Counter to globalisation. Amazing new alliances.”

Most people, however they vote (or not), are working from the same basic feeling right now. That something is broken. That the cost of everything keeps rising while the quality of life keeps falling. That the people making decisions about their lives are somewhere very far away and not especially interested in what they think. These feelings are correct. It is not paranoia or ignorance or the result of spending too much time on the wrong websites. The system is taking from all of us and extracting the planet’s resources while concentrating wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands.

Where people differ is in who they blame for it. And that difference has been very, very useful to some people.

Epstein was toasting it. While millions of people voted Leave out of genuine frustration with a system that had failed them; and they were right that something had failed them; a small group of extraordinarily wealthy men were watching the results come in and raising a glass. Not because they shared those frustrations. Because division, it turns out, is an excellent hedge. Tribes don’t organise across their differences. They don’t ask who actually owns the infrastructure. They argue with each other instead.

This is the veil that is lifting. And it’s lifting for people across the political spectrum, which is why Saturday felt the way it did.

Because what has happened in the last decade through Brexit and the pandemic, the acceleration of the far right across Europe; the rapid dismantling of democratic norms; the fossil fuel industry funding parties like Reform to the tune of millions while they promise to scrap net zero and cut energy bills; the same names appearing across Silicon Valley and oil finance and far-right movements, doesn’t feel like coincidence when you lay it out. It feels like a plan that was always longer than one election cycle.

The economist Yanis Varoufakis has a name for where that plan has brought us: technofeudalism. The idea is simple and clarifying. Real power has migrated away from governments and into the hands of a very small number of people who own the platforms, the data infrastructure, the energy systems, the clouds our information lives in. Elections still happen. But the decisions that actually shape daily life eg. what we can afford, what we can say, what gets built and what gets burned, are increasingly made by people nobody voted for and nobody can remove. This is why voting feels hollow to so many people right now. It’s not apathy. It’s accuracy.

And underneath all of it, the tech platforms; the political movements; the culture wars, fossil fuels sit at the centre. They always have. The whole system was built on the logic of extraction: take what you need, externalise the cost, move on. The planet, other people’s labour, democratic institutions, all of it available to be used and discarded. Nature isn’t incidental to this story. It is what this story is about.

Which is why the pandemic moment mattered so much. Nature didn’t wait for permission. It came back fast, visibly, in places it had been pushed out of for decades. People saw it. Heard it. Felt it. And that experience settled into something that couldn’t quite be undone: a recognition, however brief, that the world we’d been told was the only possible one wasn’t. That the noise and the speed and the extraction were choices, not inevitabilities.

The industries that depend on us forgetting that have been louder and more aggressive ever since. The tribalism Epstein was toasting in 2016 is useful precisely because it stops people from looking at what they have in common: and at who benefits when they don’t.

People who are genuinely winning don’t need to do any of that.

Saturday felt like a divorce party. Not bitter or angry: actually quite the opposite. The kind where everyone turns up in their best outfit and dances because they’re not sad, they’re free. They’re together.

This week, the tone shifts again. Some of us are heading to the flat fields of Suffolk, where the Lakenheath Alliance for Peace is holding a peace camp outside RAF Lakenheath: opposing the return of US nuclear weapons to British soil, without public debate, without a democratic decision anywhere in sight.

The same question at the centre of it: who decides?

We’re building towards something this September that tries to hold both sides of how it feels to stand up and take direct action for all living things:

LOVE & RAGE 12–14th September — join the love&rage telegram to get involved and keep updated.

Feature photograph by Gareth Morris

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London, 28 March 2026 — Extinction Rebellion will take to the streets of London tomorrow as part of the Together Alliance march, joining teachers, care workers, trade unionists, faith communities, artists and organisers in one of the biggest shows of collective will this country has seen in years. Sir Lenny Henry, Paloma Faith, Mark Rylance, Fontaines DC and many others are among the well-known faces backing this new campaign. Over 300 organisations are behind it. More than 100 coaches are coming from across the UK.

We’re there because the connections are real. The far right’s racism and denial of the climate crisis don’t come from different places — they come from the same networks, the same interests, the same handful of people who benefit when the rest of us are divided and distracted. We’ve seen this in our own movement. And as we wrote last month, the concentration of power — in technology, fossil fuels, finance, warfare and media — is one crisis, not many. A small number of extraordinarily wealthy people are simultaneously dismantling climate protections, undermining democratic institutions, stoking division and buying the infrastructure the rest of us depend on. They are not separate villains in separate stories. They are the same people, in the same rooms, with the same agenda.

Division is useful to people who benefit from it. That’s not a conspiracy. It’s a business model.

This is why a march like tomorrow’s matters for XR’s three demands. You cannot tell the truth about the climate emergency while the same billionaire interests fund its denial and flood public conversation with noise and fear. You cannot act now when regulatory systems are being hollowed out and the people trying to organise are being targeted and intimidated. And you cannot decide together when democratic participation is being actively undermined — online, in the press, and on the streets.

Standing alongside teachers, care workers, migrants, musicians and climate organisers tomorrow isn’t a distraction from that work. It’s an expression of it. Our targets are the same.

Extinction Rebellion has always been non-partisan. This isn’t left versus right. It’s about who writes the rules, who owns the systems, and whether ordinary people get any say in the future being built around them, including the climate future. We think they should. And days like tomorrow are part of how we say so.

We’ll be marching as part of the climate justice bloc  alongside Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Campaign against Climate Change, UK Youth Climate Coalition and many others, standing against the far right’s racism and against its denial of the climate crisis and ties to fossil fuel profiteering.

We will assemble at 12pm on Park Lane, in front of the Dorchester Hotel in Zone G, alongside NGOs, charities and climate groups. Once the march has moved onto the road, the Extinction Rebellion Lightship Greta will be hard to miss.

WHAT: Together Alliance March — Climate Justice Bloc 

WHEN: Saturday, 28 March 2026 — Assemble 12pm 

WHERE: Park Lane, London (Zone G, in front of the Dorchester Hotel)

Come and find us. We’ll be there waiting for you.

We’ll also have information to share on the day about the summer ahead and dates you might want to keep free: 12, 13, 14 September  LOVE & RAGE.

More on that soon…

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Last Saturday, 28 February 2026, I marched through central London with thousands of other people in the biggest ever protest about the use of AI.

This march was organised by young people and it showed in the energy of the day. Pull The Plug teamed up with Pause AI and Mad Youth Organise.

I was there as an Extinction Rebellion media volunteer, but I was also there as a mother and a creative worker who relies on technology for my job.

The placards weren’t anti-technology. They weren’t calling for the lights to be switched off or the plug to be pulled on everything new. The feeling was more thoughtful than that. Slower. A collective intake of breath.

We were asking for a pause.

Not because the technology itself is inherently evil. But because the pace of development feels completely disconnected from any meaningful public conversation about what it is for, who it serves, and what it costs — environmentally, socially and democratically.

Again and again the same concerns came up in conversations along the march.

Some people were worried about nature — the energy and water demands of vast data centres and the extraction needed to power them in the middle of a climate and ecological crisis.

Others spoke about something harder to name but deeply felt: a loss of control. Systems appearing in workplaces, schools and public services before anyone has really asked whether we want them there, or how they should be governed.

And many people were worried about their livelihoods. Teachers, artists, programmers, writers — people wondering what happens when powerful automation arrives faster than society can adapt.

But beneath these concerns sat a deeper question.

Not simply ‘what will AI do?’
But ‘who will control the infrastructure that builds and runs it?’

The data. The rules. The direction of travel.

And that matters not only for democracy, but for creativity too. Many people in the crowd weren’t rejecting AI. They were imagining tools that expand human creativity rather than systems quietly managing our lives. But that future depends on who controls the infrastructure that builds and runs these technologies — and whether the public has any say in how they are governed.

One conversation from the front of the march has stayed with me. I was walking near the stewards, chatting as we moved slowly through the streets, when a man in his thirties fell into step beside us. He hadn’t come with the march. He had simply seen it passing and was curious. He asked what our demands were. Why were we marching?

Then he asked a harder question.

“What are your biggest fears with AI?”

I paused. It’s surprisingly difficult to answer that directly. Part of my mind went immediately to the darker edges of it all — the way AI is already being used in warfare and surveillance, and the sense that systems of enormous power are being built faster than society can properly understand or govern them.

But that’s not always the easiest thing to explain to a stranger in the middle of a march. So I started with something more tangible. I told him about the infrastructure behind it — the vast data centres needed to train these systems, their energy use and the water required to cool them.

I told him that I worry about nature. But I also worry about creativity. About freedom. About who gets to shape the systems that will increasingly shape us. He asked whether I was worried about jobs for my son when he grows up.

I told him honestly that young people tend to be far more adaptable than we give them credit for. They grow with technology. They reshape it. They find paths older generations couldn’t imagine. But then he laughed slightly and admitted he was worried about his own job.

He’s a lawyer, and he uses AI every day to draft legal documents. “It writes better than me sometimes,” he said. There wasn’t anger in his voice. Just uncertainty — the quiet realisation that the ground beneath his profession might be shifting. He was thoughtful, curious, open. Before we parted, we agreed it felt important for society to be talking about these questions now, rather than later.

Not a call to smash the machines.

But a simple democratic request: pause long enough for people to decide together what we are building.

This is bigger than which chatbot we use or which AI company claims to be the most ethical. Individuals can’t shop their way out of this structural problem.

We’ve seen this playbook before. BP first marketed the idea of the “personal carbon footprint”, shifting their responsibility onto individuals. 

The truth is that OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia all have defense deals meaning there is no clean option. None of their power depends on your subscription anyway. These companies aren’t valued on your monthly fee. They’re valued on pentagon contracts and sovereign wealth funds. Tech giants and authoritarian governments are not just tolerating each other, they are co-investing. 

After the march, people gathered for exactly the kind of conversation they had been calling for. We shared hot vegan food and warm drinks, then held an assembly to talk about fears, hopes and safeguards.

For me, moments like that matter.

Protests push hard for change, but they also create space for reflection, care and listening. Sharing food and talking openly about the future we want is a small way of modelling the world many of us want to build..

Extinction Rebellion has always tried to hold that balance: pushing urgently for change while practising regenerative ways of relating to each other.

The message of the march felt closely aligned with XR’s three demands.

Tell the Truth about the risks and consequences of these technologies.
Act Now to ensure strong safeguards before systems become too powerful to regulate.
Decide Together through democratic participation, such as citizens’ assemblies, how AI should be governed and where its limits should lie.

The same concentration of power — in technology, fossil fuels, the military, finance and media — lies behind many of the crises we face. Wealth and decision-making are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few corporations and billionaires, while division and scapegoating distract from the systems driving climate breakdown and inequality.

This is also why Extinction Rebellion UK will be joining the Together Alliance march on 28 March. XR has always been non-partisan, and this is not about regular left versus right-wing politics. It is about recognising that climate justice, racial justice, migrant justice and democratic accountability are deeply connected. The same extractive, individualistic system threatens all of our safety and freedom. This march will bring together workers, migrants, climate activists and communities from across the UK — including a cultural procession from Notting Hill Carnival and a wide range of musicians and DJs playing in Trafalgar Square until 6pm. It will be a moment of celebration and solidarity, reminding us that the future should not be written for us, without us.

The most meaningful thing you can do in 2026 is find discussion spaces and groups in your local area or online who are already organising nonviolent direct action and building community resilience.

A better world is already being built. Everyone is welcome.

Feature photograph by Denise Laura Baker

Pull The Plug
“Give ordinary people a real say in how AI is used in our lives.”

Pause AI
“We mobilise communities, challenge industry, and press leaders to pause unsafe AI development until real safeguards exist.”

Mad Youth Organise
“Fighting the corporations getting rich while we get sick.”

Together Alliance
“Our members represent over 7 million people.
We are teachers, firefighters, care workers, cleaners, midwives, engineers and so much more. We’re all marching for unity against division.”

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Images available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1u7jmOXNuVSBm5XsMoacGuTRJIRde-H6j 

For more information please contact Christian Climate Action on [email protected] or 07427770385.

Christian climate activists ‘died’ on the steps of St Paul’s on the 18th and 19th February to call on Church of England leaders to urge the Government to refuse the Rosebank oilfield in the North Sea.

The protestors staged the ‘die in’ on the steps of the cathedral on Ash Wednesday to highlight inaction on the Climate Emergency which is killing millions of people from famine, flood, forest fires and drought. 

Christian Climate Action (CCA) wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell and the Bishop of Norwich, Graham Usher, the lead bishop for the environment, urging them to speak out prophetically and demand plans for the vast Rosebank oilfield be stopped.

The group said: “Christian Climate Action is urging the Church of England to be a prophetic voice in this existential crisis and speak out against the forces that are driving the Climate and Nature Emergency. This includes calling out the fossil fuel companies, their financers, enablers and lobbyists, and using its position as the established Church to call on the UK Government to make responsible decisions for the future of the people of this country.” You can read the full letter here.

Members of CCA lay covered in shrouds with tombstones at their feet to represent the people around the world who are dying due to extreme climate impacts. They held up banners on the steps saying ‘Stop Rosebank’ and ‘Don’t Crucify Creation.’ The banner holders were ashed in the sign of the cross with a substance that resembled oil. 

The Government is expected any day to announce a decision on the vast Rosebank oilfield, which lies 80 miles off Shetland. It is the UK’s largest undeveloped oil and gas field and would produce 500 million barrels of oil, creating more CO2 annually than the world’s 28 low-income countries combined. Most of the oil will be exported and will never reduce UK energy bills. 

CCA staged the die-in at the start of a 24-hour Ash Wednesday vigil outside St Paul’s as part of the Stop Crucifying Creation campaign. The campaign urges the Church of England to take radical and urgent action in the face of the Climate and Nature Emergency and to speak out prophetically and unapologetically against the forces that are driving planetary breakdown.

People are due to vigil around the clock outside the iconic cathedral, praying on the hour throughout the day and night, and lighting candles for victims of extreme weather events around the world until 12noon on Thursday.

Rev Helen Burnett, Church of England vicar from Chaldon, Surrey, said: “Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent,  which is the season of repentance and reflection. A time when Christians consider their commitment to living within the limits of the gospel which frees us to live in ways that bring justice and peace. 

“That’s why we have chosen today to urge the Church to speak out against fossil fuel extraction and here in the UK that means stopping the Rosebank oil field from being developed. The Church of England can ‘Speak Truth to Power’, and be a prophetic voice on climate, calling out oil and gas companies and government inaction on the climate and nature crisis.”

Judith, 64, a Franciscan tertiary, from London, said: “With almost daily reports about the impact of the climate and biodiversity crisis from scientists, economists and security experts, I deplore the lack of action and engagement by institutions such as the Government and the Church. 

“By taking part in this 24-hour vigil at the start of Lent – a season when through prayer and acts of self-sacrifice we are encouraged to reflect on and realign our lives with Christ – I hope I can draw attention to the urgency with which we should be changing direction. We must stop crucifying creation.” 

James Grote, a retired Baptist minister from Oxford, said: “Climate change is crucifying creation through flood and drought, heat and storms. We must speak up with those who are suffering the loss of everything in our one and only planet. If we are to continue to live in hope we have to act now, move away from fossil fuels, call out the oil and gas giants and stop Rosebank.”

Mark Francis, 59, from Sussex, said: “Each new oilfield delays the transition to renewable energy, delays the investment into new green jobs, and locks us further into both an expensive and climate-wrecking energy system. Rosebank is clearly the defining test of this government’s credibility on climate change.”

Sandie, a grandmother from Lincolnshire, said: “The climate crisis is upon us, and Christians need to speak up on behalf of the vulnerable – both humans and non-human creation so generously gifted by God. We are calling on our church leaders to step up, tell the truth, and be part of the solution.”

Stop Rosebank Campaigner Lauren MacDonald said: “The scientific evidence is clear that we cannot open new North Sea oil and gas projects if we are to stay within the 1.5ºc threshold set out in the Paris Agreement, to which the UK is a signatory. In fact, Rosebank’s vast CO2 emissions would equate to more than 700 million people in the Global South produce in a year.”

For further information please contact Christian Climate Action – [email protected] , or 07427770385

• Christian Climate Action is a community of Christians supporting each other to take meaningful action in the face of imminent and catastrophic, anthropogenic climate breakdown. We are inspired by Jesus Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit. Following the example of social justice movements of the past, we carry out acts of public witness, nonviolent protest and civil disobedience to urge those in power to make the changes needed.  Christian Climate Action – Direct action, public witness for the climate

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A jury has delivered a unanimous not-guilty verdict to the six healthcare professionals from Health for Extinction Rebellion who cracked windows at JP Morgan Chase’s European headquarters during the July 2022 heatwave.

After fewer than four hours of deliberation, all six defendants were acquitted.

The six — two GPs, two consultants and two nurses with more than 130 years of combined NHS service — took action on 17 July 2022 at JP Morgan’s Canary Wharf headquarters. Wearing scrubs and carrying tools marked with words such as “care” and “love”, they cracked eight panes of glass near the entrance before sitting down and waiting to be arrested.

Their action took place during a record-breaking heatwave associated with 3,271 excess deaths in the UK, including 1,256 in the four days surrounding the protest.

The medics said they acted from a professional duty of care, describing the climate crisis as a public health emergency requiring proportionate intervention.

Speaking in her closing statement, Ali Rowe told the jury:

“Medicine is not about blind rule-following. Every good clinician… knows there are moments when rules must be broken to prevent serious harm. Ethics teaching recognises this: sometimes you violate a lesser rule to uphold a deeper duty of care.”

The prosecution argued that the case was simply about criminal damage and that breaking the glass had no impact on climate change. The defendants did not dispute that they took part in the action, but denied criminal damage on the basis that their actions were necessary and proportionate in the context of escalating harm.

In her closing remarks, Dr Juliette Brown began by thanking the members of the jury. Describing the court experience as having “an anesthetising effect,” she went on to explain:

“I feel quite numb at times, and disempowered and I find myself searching for the humanity here.

The one redeeming feature for me is the jury who bring humanity into this system. It’s been described as the moral sense of the people. You are the ones who bring reality into these rooms, who can see the bigger picture, the real world beyond what feels to me like the rather blunt instrument of the law.”

The jury returned a verdict of not guilty, despite being given no formal legal route to acquit.

Supporters in the public gallery described seeing looks of relief and joy on the faces of the jurors after the verdict was announced.

Why JP Morgan?

JP Morgan Chase was targeted as it is the world’s largest financier of fossil fuels. Between 2015, when the Paris Climate Agreement was signed, and 2022, the bank provided $384.2 billion to the fossil fuel sector. In 2021 alone, it financed fossil fuels to the tune of $61.7 billion — the same year the International Energy Agency stated that no new oil, gas or coal development can proceed if global heating is to be limited to 1.5°C.

In 2020, a leaked JP Morgan report warned that the planet is on an “unsustainable trajectory” and that “something has to change if the human race is going to survive”.

JP Morgan entered the UK domestic retail banking sector in September 2021 by launching its digital-only bank under the Chase UK brand. Last year they revealed plans to build a 3m sq ft tower in Canary Wharf hours after they were spared increased taxes in Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget. Just last month it was announced that Chase Bank also entered the UK insurance market.

The defendants argued that continued fossil fuel expansion has direct and foreseeable impacts on health, including heat-related illness, respiratory disease and preventable deaths.

Protest and the wider context

This was the second trial of the six medics, after an earlier jury failed to reach a verdict.

Since the original action in 2022, protest law in the UK has changed significantly, effectively removing all legal defences available to climate activists in court.

Throughout the trial, the defendants emphasised that they took steps to minimise risk and avoid harm, framing their action as a symbolic intervention intended to “sound the alarm” on the health impacts of the climate emergency.

The unanimous acquittal marks a notable outcome in a shifting legal landscape for protest in the UK.

TELL THE TRUTH

Last year, Health for Extinction Rebellion performed a Climate and Health ‘press conference’ outside Parliament, demonstrating how the government needs to acknowledge the urgency of the climate and health crises and announce crucial new policies to address these.

MOST IMPORTANTLY

Thank you as always to our medics and healthcare workers. We owe you so, so much.

With LOVE and RAGE

Notes:

Health for Extinction Rebellion (previously Doctors for XR) is a collective of doctors, nurses and other health professionals who recognise their professional responsibility to demand and support appropriate, proportionate and urgent action to protect their patients and the public from the escalating health harms of the climate and ecological emergency.

Further reading:

Article by the British Medical Association

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Rest and regeneration are not absence or delay. Nature doesn’t move by calendars or commands and gardens don’t bloom on January 1st.  If we are serious about preserving nature and the living world, we have to keep remembering that we are part of its ebbs and flows. Much of what we need for a world beyond extraction already exists — and we’ve been practising it together for years. Action, community, repair.

The first stretch of winter asked a lot of us. We told the truth about where we are. We sat with loss, failure and grief — not as abstractions, but as lived realities. We acknowledged that 1.5°C has been breached, and that the failure to act was structural, not partisan.

Now the door is open — not to comfort or certainty or complacency, but to putting our vision for a better world into motion.

This moment is for regrouping and nourishment — for protecting what sustains us: community, courage, creativity and hope. Attention is turning to the doors that remain firmly in our way, and to what it takes, collectively, to refuse to be ignored.

At the same time, cracks are appearing in the official story. Last month, a long-blocked government assessment was finally released, acknowledging that ecological breakdown is not a side issue but a serious risk to food systems, health, supply chains and social stability. The report had been delayed and redacted, held back from public view, and only emerged because of sustained pressure from concerned members of the public.

This matters, because it shows how much effort is still being spent avoiding the full truth. Extinction Rebellion’s demand to Tell the Truth remains for a reason: without honesty, people are denied the chance to respond meaningfully together, and fear is left to do the work instead.

Fear can feel isolating. Action reconnects. It’s our actions that will continue to make a difference in 2026. 

That’s why we’ve just launched the DO NOT DISTURB door-hanger action. It’s simple, local, and repeatable. A way to mark the places where decisions are made behind closed doors — councils, offices, banks — and to say, calmly and visibly, that silence and delay are no longer acceptable in an emergency. A door becomes a threshold. A private space is gently, collectively interrupted.

This isn’t about doing everything, or doing it perfectly. It’s about doing something, together. Print or order your hangers. Show up with others to doors that have closed on hope. Post on social media — tag with #DoDisturb. Repeat. Make the demand for truth and accountability visible where it’s usually hidden away. Action doesn’t remove fear entirely, but it gives it somewhere to go.

We’ve seen before what becomes possible when pressures on nature ease and people reconnect. During the pandemic, when most travel and industry halted, nature reappeared in places it had been pushed out of. Communities rediscovered mutual aid. Creativity bloomed through boredom and shared grief. None of this fixed the crisis — but it reminded us that regeneration is real, and that systems are not as immovable as they might prefer to appear.

As we move towards spring and summer, Extinction Rebellion is beginning to introduce spaces for deeper reflection and shared learning, including The World We Want talks and trainings. These aren’t a replacement for nonviolent direct action — they sit alongside it — helping us practise the kinds of relationships, decisions and care that a liveable future actually requires. You’ll hear more about this soon.

For now, know this: you are not expected to carry everything. You are not too late. You are not alone. The work ahead belongs to many hands, moving at human pace, grounded in truth and held together by community.

We are still here.
We are still telling the truth.
And we are still acting — together.

Join Us
XRUK email list
Register for a welcome talk

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London — Saturday 20 December
Whitehall is flooded with darkness by Extinction Rebellion performers
Ministry Of Defence — House of Lords — 55 Tufton Street

Hi-Resolution Press Assets https://show.pics.io/xr-global-media-breaking-news
XRUK Press Contact on site:  Jennifer (+44) 7756 136396
[email protected]

Apocalypse Theatrics’s Oil Slick performers glided in triangular formation through Whitehall this morning, pausing at key entrances to mark what they describe as a critical turning point: the passing of the 1.5°C Paris climate goal.

To mark the first phase in XRUK’s Trilogy campaign the Oil Slicks paused at the entrances of three influential establishments, symbolically closing the door on institutions they say have failed to act on scientific warnings.

Outreach teams spoke with passers-by about what must come next; a people-powered shift toward community resilience, climate honesty, and a future built from cooperation rather than extraction.

Banners carried the messages:
“TELL THE TRUTH”, “A BETTER WORLD IS POSSIBLE” and “1.5°C IS DEAD”

Climate risk warnings still not widely shared

Seven years after XRUK first called for urgent climate action, a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, and citizen-led decision-making, none of those demands has been met, and the window to keep global heating below 1.5°C has now passed. Campaigners say the government has failed to communicate the scale of the crisis, while approving new oil projects and restricting climate protest.

Just weeks ago, the National Emergency Briefing (NEB) delivered one of the starkest climate risk assessments presented to political leaders.
It warned that the climate and ecological crisis now threatens:

• food security
• national health
• infrastructure stability
• UK national security

Despite this, the briefing was barely attended by MPs, received minimal media coverage, and has been effectively kept from the public.

Even the government’s own Joint Intelligence Committee has warned that climate breakdown poses escalating security risks — yet these warnings have been quietly filed away, not shared openly.

David MacMillan, a retired IT Project Manager and participant from Bath said:

“We raised the alarm seven years ago. Now the National Emergency Briefing and climate security experts are saying the same things but the public aren’t being told. Instead of telling the truth, our political leaders are doubling down on oil and keeping the real risks behind closed doors.”

Rosebank: Labour reopens a door that should have stayed shut

In the recent Budget, the Labour Government ignored years of campaigning by climate scientists and activists, re-opening the door to the Rosebank oil field. Rosebank alone contains around 300 million barrels of oil, the burning of which would add millions of tonnes of CO₂ into a world already beyond safe limits. 

Rosebank is just one example. Instead of closing doors on fossil fuels, ministers have propped them wide open — even as communities across Britain face escalating floods, heatwaves, crop failures and food insecurity.

Marion, apiarist, age 71 was present, she said:

“We’re not talking about a line on a graph here, we’re talking about the safety of the British people. Our best chance has gone. Ordinary folk will pay the price as more heatwaves make travel, work and classrooms unsafe, more floods damage homes and our farmers can’t grow the food we need to survive.

Crossing 1.5°C won’t mean the world will end tomorrow, but it does mean an increasingly unstable and less predictable climate and the systems we rely on are placed under increasing strain.”

Closing this door to open another: An invitation, not an ending

During these dark days of midwinter, XRUK invites the public to recognise that the old path is over.

This is not a moment of despair, but a moment of clarity.

1.5°C is dead.
But humanity is not.
Will you walk through with us and rebel for life?

Notes for Editors

1. Extinction Rebellion UK:
   XRUK emerged in 2018 in response to growing scientific warnings about climate breakdown. Since then, thousands of people across the UK have taken part in nonviolent direct actions, community organising, and public outreach aimed at pushing climate risk into the public conversation. The movement has played a visible role in shaping debate around climate honesty, government accountability, and the social impacts of a rapidly warming world. https://extinctionrebellion.uk/about/
2. The Oil Slicks: Apocalypse Theatric’s Oil Slicks are a performance group who highlight the dangers of oil spills to wildlife, the dangers of burning fossil fuels to all life on Earth, and the need for urgent action to keep fossil fuels in the ground to save lives. Oil Slicks are tragic and mournful, angry and reluctant to come out of the ground. #KeepItInTheGround
3. XRUK’s Three Demands (2018–present): 
   – Tell the Truth: Declare a climate and ecological emergency and communicate the scale of the crisis. 
   – Act Now: Reduce emissions to net zero by 2025 and halt biodiversity loss. 
   – Decide Together: The creation of a Citizens’ Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice to guide decision-making. 
4. 1.5°C Has Been Surpassed:
   Multiple scientific bodies, including the Met Office and the WMO, have confirmed that global heating has exceeded 1.5°C across multiple annual periods. 2024 was the first full year on record in which the global average temperature was more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. https://www.wri.org/insights/1-5-degrees-c-target-explained 
5. The National Emergency Briefing (NEB):
   The NEB is a cross-sector body bringing together scientists, resilience experts, emergency planners, business leaders, councils, and civil society to warn of escalating climate risks.
   Their recent Open Letter called for truth-telling, urgent action, and community-led planning. https://www.nebriefing.org/
6. Joint Intelligence Committee:
   The UK Joint Intelligence Committee has repeatedly identified climate breakdown as a critical national security risk, warning of destabilisation, food shocks, migration pressures, and systemic threats to UK infrastructure. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/08/national-security-threatened-climate-crisis-uk-defence-chiefs-warn 
7. Rosebank and New Oil:
   Rosebank is the UK’s largest undeveloped oil field. Labour’s Budget reopened pathways for the field’s development despite scientific consensus that new oil and gas projects are incompatible with climate safety. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0r9gyjkky0o   https://www.carbonbrief.org/uk-budget-2025-key-climate-and-energy-announcements/

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On Saturday 6th December, Extinction Rebellion’s Red Rebel Brigade silently marched towards Westfield in White City, West London to share a message about the potentially disastrous impact of the uncontrolled growth of human activity on our children and on future generations.

Eleven Red Rebels moved through White City towards the shopping centre in slow, silent formation, with rebels carrying banners reading “No Shopping on a Dead Planet” and “A Better World is Possible”. Their intention was simple: to invite shoppers to pause and reflect on whether the habit of over-buying is the gift we want to pass on to the next generation.

Westfield security were quick to close the door on our message. Around ten security officers surrounded the group and intercepted their entrance to the shopping centre by shutting the doors to the west side. They even brought a dog out. The officer in charge repeatedly threatened to forcibly remove the Red Rebels if they did not leave, claiming the silent performers were “intimidating” his guards. The main entrance of the centre was closed for around an hour.

Rebels gave their message on a small megaphone:

“We are here today to say this obsession with growth cannot continue. Each year, billions of tonnes of waste are created globally, with vast amounts still being dumped in landfill or burned. We don’t need to be constantly sold new things. We have this one beautiful planet. There is no Planet B. There can’t be infinite growth on a finite planet.”

Westfield is complicit — it tried to silence our message. Security staff demanded that the megaphone be put away, citing the presence of children. Yet young people around the shopping centre were not upset and instead approached the Red Rebels with curiosity and excitement, taking stickers and information from outreachers. For many families, these gentle moments of connection stood in stark contrast to the aggressive response from security.

An activist from Fashion Rebellion notes: 

“Fast Fashion produces enough discarded garments every second to fill an Olympic swimming pool. Our discarded clothes end up in places like Ghana’s “fast fashion graveyard” where 15 million items of discarded garments arrive each week. We now have enough garments to clothe the next 6 generations.“

This peaceful, nonviolent action spoke to Westfield and its shoppers as people like all of us, caught inside a system that pushes constant consumption as the measure of happiness and success. The Red Rebels’ presence asked a question: who benefits from this, and who pays the price?

Jen Massey, mother and community worker from Brighton said:

“We came to offer a message of care, not confrontation. Another way of living is possible for us all.”

This action forms part of XRUK’s winter creative work reflecting on what has been lost, what is broken, and what might still be rebuilt. As the year draws to a close — a time traditionally associated with generosity, reflection, and spending time with our loved ones — XRUK is calling on people to recognise that leaving a habitable world would be the most meaningful gift of all.

Just last week, the National Emergency Briefing (NEB), attended by over a thousand MPs and business, faith and media leaders, delivered a stark, united warning that the climate and ecological crisis now threatens food security, health, and national security across the UK. As well as confronting the reality of the crisis, the NEB illuminated countless examples of regeneration, repair, and human creativity already taking root. Groups are uniting to achieve the better world that remains within reach.

Our action sends the message that similarly, the crisis directly affects all of our everyday lives — and our choices around consumption, solidarity and care matter now more than ever.Extinction Rebellion urges shoppers to resolve to help repair the environment in the New Year. A better world is possible and we will build it together — a healthy environment in which to flourish is the best gift that we can give to our children.

Notes for Editors

1. Extinction Rebellion is a network of people who care deeply about the future of our planet, all human beings, and all living things. We are from diverse backgrounds and experiences. We come together in Extinction Rebellion because we are living in a time of Climate and Nature Emergency with our eco-systems and society at risk of collapse in the sixth mass extinction.
   We aim to tackle this crisis head on, using campaigns and Nonviolent Direct Action to compel those in power to act.
   https://extinctionrebellion.uk/about/
2. The Red Rebels are an international performance activist troupe dedicated to illuminating the global environmental crisis and supporting groups and organisations fighting to save humanity and all species from mass extinction. https://redrebelbrigade.com/ 
3. The National Emergency Briefing (NEB) is a cross-sector initiative bringing together leaders in their fields to present the latest risks facing the UK from the climate and ecological emergency. Last month, the NEB issued an Open Letter urging leaders to tell the truth about the scale of the climate and ecological crisis, to act now with the urgency the science requires, and to strengthen democratic participation so communities can shape a fair transition — themes that closely reflect the three core demands XRUK has championed since 2018. Its message is not only one of risk, but of regeneration: the Briefing showcased numerous examples of communities and institutions already working to restore ecosystems, strengthen social cohesion and build the foundations of a safer, fairer future. https://www.nebriefing.org
4. Extinction Rebellion and the Red Rebels recently took part in the Make them Pay rally in Central London with a coalition of  groups joining together representing millions of workers, citizens and communities across Britain. https://www.makethempay.org.uk/ 

Useful Sources on Fast-Fashion Waste & Overproduction

• “Fast-Fashion Beyond the Tag” — infographic & report (by Center for Biological Diversity) — shows that the industry produces over 100 billion new garments per year globally, and describes the environmental, waste and pollution consequences. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/pdfs/Fast-Fashion-Beyond-the-Tag-Infographic-2023-02.pdf
• “AT WHAT COST? Unravelling the Harms of the Fast Fashion Industry” (2023) — overview of waste, emissions, and the global environmental footprint of fast fashion. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02914-2
• Report on global textile and clothing waste — estimates that global clothing production has soared, much of which ends up as waste.https://earth.org/fast-fashion-pollution-and-climate-change
• Environmental impact analysis of fast fashion’s carbon and pollution footprint (e.g. water usage, microplastics, pesticides, etc.) — useful to show that overconsumption impacts more than waste. https://zipdo.co/sustainable-fashion-industry-statistics

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