If you were checking the news last month, you might have read about the “Shut Down D.C.” (also stylized as #ShutDownDC) climate strikes that took place in Washington, D.C. and around the world during September’s Global Climate Strike week.

Those actions were a sign of what was to come in October — two weeks of planned Extinction Rebellion protests designed to shut down dozens of cities around the world. As Chris Hedges recently wrote in Truthdig:

Monday, Oct. 7. marks the start of what the British-based group Extinction Rebellion is calling the International Rebellion. Thousands of people will occupy the centers of some 60 cities around the globe, including Madrid, Amsterdam, Paris and New York, to stage nonviolent occupations of bridges and roads for at least a week … The group stresses what it calls a “pre-social-media age” strategy for organizing. It has created decentralized structures to make decisions and issue demands. It sends out teams to give talks in communities. It insists that people who participate in the actions of Rebellion Extinction undergo “nonviolent direct-action” training so they will not be provoked by the police or opposition groups. - an excerpt from Time to Rebel (an article by Chris Hedges)

Extinction Rebellion’s strategy is working. The events in October are so massive and disruptive that even the Washington Post is covering them in the context of a global movement.

September’s Shut Down D.C. actions also sparked the interest of U.S. mainstream media and press, interrupting (if only for a few hours) the steady stream of Trump-inspired conspiracies, murder mysteries, and sex scandals that dominate corporate channels of information. “Climate Protests Snarl Traffic, but Washington Still Goes to Work,” The New York Times observed regarding the action on Monday, September 23. “Climate change protests snarl DC traffic as bizarre scenes unfold in capital,” muttered Fox News. “Climate activists snarl Washington, D.C. rush-hour traffic in push for action,” noted The Boston Globe.

Some news organizations mustered enough creativity to describe what had happened without using a word that is usually associated with dogs. The Hill went with “Protesters shut down DC intersections to demand shift to renewable energy,” while Al Jazeera English produced one of the better videos about the shut down, allowing climate rebels to speak about their demands for more than a few seconds.