Good morning! Here are some rebellious updates to keep you firmly in the loop.

Rebellion of One

Coming out of the pandemic will be our last, best chance to remake the world, and it’s being thrown away.

If one thing is clear, it’s that the government is not about to ‘build back better’ from Covid-19: their policies and budgets give them away. Clearly visible behind the coat of greenwash are the government’s real priorities: stay in power; bail out polluting industries; protect their own interests; and lie to us about it.

It’s terrifying.

We need to do something. In March, we will.

Join Rebellion of One to be part of Extinction Rebellion UK’s first mass civil disobedience of 2021.

Rebellion Of One is a brand new tactic: a single-person roadblock ... times 1,000. The action is open to anyone and there is a role for everyone. Each person wears a sign with a simple and emotive message. They each have an incognito support team, hiding in plain sight amongst the passersby on the pavements. They remain sitting in the road until they choose to move, or are moved.

It’s a chance to do something alone, yet united. Individual, yet collective.

This action has been trialled successfully several times in London and Cambridge; here is a short film about the trials.

Here is the full action briefing, and here's a link to a calendar for the special trainings that have been designed for this action. Sign up here and join the Telegram channel here.

This action will be the first of XR UK’s rolling Rebellion Waves: rebellions held each month, increasing in pressure each time as we build up to COP26. In this unprecedented time, we must continue to act, and this is an action that can be taken during Covid.

We will not be bystanders while the world burns.

See you on the streets.

TruthTeller.Life: Whistleblow for the Planet

We recently launched our whistleblowing project TruthTeller to help employees blow the whistle on their climate-damaging companies. Anyone with new insider information can visit TruthTeller.Life to find out how to safely and anonymously reveal what they know.

Launch actions included 1000 unauthorised inserts placed in last weekend’s Financial Times, a spoof of consumerist glossy 'How to Spend It' titled 'How to Save it'; calling cards delivered to executive London neighbourhoods inviting senior staff working from home to whistleblow for the planet; and pioneering online LinkedIn ads delivered to employees at Shell, HSBC, HS2 and more.

To keep up with developments follow @TruthTellerXR on Twitter. To get involved, email [email protected], or to donate visit our crowdfunder. (Potential whistleblowers should not visit TruthTeller.Life on a work device.)

Letters to the Earth

Tomorrow, Letters to the Earth: Writing to a Planet in Crisis paperback is being published by HarperCollins. It's a response to the combined crises of the climate and ecological emergency, and the coronavirus pandemic.

With an introduction by Emma Thompson, there are letters responding to Covid-19 from Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri and Skin’s star Freya Mavor, plus contributions from Yoko Ono, actor Mark Rylance, poet Kae Tempest, author Laline Paull, illustrator of The Lost Words Jackie Morris and environmental writer Jay Griffiths.  

There is a Letters to the Earth Live online event happening tomorrow (Thursday) at 6pm - register here. Writers from South Africa, Germany, America and the UK will share their hopes, despair, uncertainty, rage and questions, as we ask: What next for climate action in the age of pandemic?

Save the Oaks

Save the Oaks is currently distributing 30,000 oak saplings for planting to more than 160 projects across the UK. These saplings were part of the 750,000 oak saplings which were facing destruction as the UK Government had reneged on promises of a huge national tree-planting scheme.

We are currently in talks with the nursery to save the remaining saplings - 50,000 we are told. More news soon.

If you are interested in getting involved, Save the Oaks, there is still time to donate and/or you can apply to become a tree guardian.

Rewild yourself this Spring

This year’s Bringing it Home course starts in March 2021. People looking to connect to nature - within and around them - are invited to join this journey.

Designed for the profound times we live in - and suitable for people around the world - Bringing It Home is an in-depth yearlong opportunity to rewild your life, creating cultures that nourish us all.

Participants will become part of a focused online group meeting for seven key weekends across the next year, moving through the cycles of nature, exploring how they affect them and the world.

The course brings together learnings from earth-based cultures around the world with nature connection activities that can be integrated into their life wherever they are. It also includes supported solo time in nature - in particular a dusk-to-dawn or 24-hour solo in August to journey deeper into yourself and the wild around you.

To find out more about the course, people can join an introductory evening group call on 25 February and 3 March by reserving here as well as watching the video series.

Video: Tension Shifting in groups

Have you experienced feeling stuck, uneasy, annoyed, hurt, angry, or overwhelmed in your groups? This is often a sign that something needs to change in the way that we’re working or being together.

In this video you will learn tools to shift tensions in your group and transform tension into opportunities for growth and connection.

We in the Transformative Conflict team want to share our process for Tension Shifting that we’ve been using on a regular basis to make our team thrive during the past year.

We have also just started a Mattermost channel where we can support each other with tension shifting meetings. I hope to see you all there!

More info on XR's approach to conflict on our website here.