Early Blossoms,

Early Warning

DC’s iconic cherry trees herald the start of spring. Their beautiful blossoms attract bees, cardinals, bluebirds—and 1.5 million people—to the capital every year.

Yet their beauty delivers a bleak warning. Global heating is warming our winters. Spring is arriving earlier than normal. The hotter planet is disrupting our seasons and destroying the natural world that supports life on Earth. Early cherry blossoms are nature’s distress signal—a grim reminder that the climate and ecological emergency will destroy everything we love unless we act now.

Our life support system is at risk from the burning of fossil fuels. Mass starvation on a scale the world has never suffered before is now a very real possibility. Societal collapse looms. This year’s early cherry blossoms are a warning that at only 1 °C of warming global heating is already disrupting our seasons and confusing pollinators, posing a severe threat to our food supply. At 4 °C, billions of people may die, primarily from starvation. 

We are calling on every single person to act now to Save Our Spring. This is a global SOS call to save millions—possibly billions—of people from starvation, millions of species from extinction, and humanity from the violence of social collapse.

Join the Rebellion here and help save spring from climate and ecological breakdown.

The tidal basin is another sign of the catastrophic changes underway. Last year, Greeland’s ice sheet melted at rates not expected until 2070. The Arctic will soon be ice free in summer. 

Global heating is also causing the world’s oceans to heat up rapidly. Imagine five atomic bombs exploding underwater every second. That’s how much heat our oceans are absorbing. As ice melts and oceans expand because of the extra heat, so the seas rise.

Already the footpath around the tidal basin is flooded every high tide. DC’s rivers may rise by as much as 11-12 feet within 80 years. 

Our beloved cherry trees, the quintessence of spring, will die off as they drown in the rising waters.

A moral duty to rebel

Whatever our politics, we have a moral duty to rebel. Our government has known about global warming for decadesand yet it has failed to act. It has failed to stop the mass extinction of species or reverse the destruction of the natural world.

This is why XR is in open rebellion against the government for its criminal failure to tackle a crisis that threatens the collapse of civilization.

The changes needed to avert a catastrophic breakdown of society are still technically and economically possible. They involve creating a world that is less frenetic and more beautiful. 

Social science shows us that peaceful civil disobedience is one of the most powerful and effective ways to bring about this change. Our lives have meaning when we follow our conscience and make sacrifices to protect what we love. 

To all those who feel the same - join our peaceful rebellion. Join us as we rebel for everything we stand to lose in the floods and flames.

Join us as we rebel for life. 

Earth Day to May Day…

#Shutdowndc

Fifty years after the first Earth Day, Extinction Rebellion DC will help make history this April. In partnership with environmental and social justice groups across the city, we will rise to demand a future.

Starting April 24, XRDC will take to the streets every morning to shut down Washington DC as part of one of the capital’s largest acts of nonviolent civil disobedience for the natural world.

But we can’t mobilize thousands of people without you. We need your skills to grow the rebellion, whether you’re a carpenter, musician, electrician or great at supporting others. We need everyone.

Sign up here to volunteer or come to a nonviolent civil disobedience training. You don’t need to get arrested. If you can’t get into the streets with Extinction Rebellion, join fellow rebels by texting, phonebanking, flyering and postering. Come create art with us, meditate with us, or join a working group. 

Let’s show how hard we will fight for all that we love and all that we have to lose. Join us for Earth Day to May Day 2020. And ask yourself: if not now, then when? If not you, then who?