350 Updates

Day One Highlights: Power Shift NZ-Pacific

Aaron Packard
Posted by Aaron Packard - 12/07/12, 1:54am

We just wrapped up the first day of Power Shift NZ-Pacific here in Auckland, New Zealand. With young people from across New Zealand and 13 Pacific Islands - it's been an amazing and energetic day. We're dog tired, so we'll leave the highlight reel to demonstrate just what went on. Two massive days of world changing ahead, we'll keep you posted.

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Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign Featured in the NYT!

Jamie Henn
Posted by Jamie Henn - 12/04/12, 11:24pm

Here's an email Bill McKibben just sent out to the 350.org list: 

My last 24 hours:

1) Do the final show of the #DoTheMath tour -- as usual, a sold-out, full-of-power evening, this one in Salt Lake City with my old friend Terry Tempest Williams.

2) Get myself home for the first time in a long while -- happily, both my wife and dog seemed to recognize me.

3) Open the computer and find this article about the Do the Math Tour and fosil fuel divestment on the front page of the New York Times -- a huge, prominent vindication of everyone’s hard work. Here's what the website looks like as I type this:

The article in The New York Times tells the story of students, faculty and alumni around the country who are demanding divestment from fossil fuels. On a few campuses, like Swarthmore, they’ve been at it for semesters -- but all of a sudden, as the article says, they find themselves “at the vanguard of a national movement. In recent weeks, college students on dozens of campuses have demanded that university endowment funds rid themselves of coal, oil and gas stocks. The students see it as a tactic that could force climate change, barely discussed in the presidential campaign, back onto the national political agenda.”

The picture that accompanies the article comes from our Minneapolis roadshow last Friday night, and the article concisely lays out the demands and the strategy of the campaign. It’s precisely the boost we need. So please, go read it here: www.nyti.ms/SESrfr

We’re quickly getting traction, but we can get more if we have your help. 

So, first things first: please email the article by clicking the "E-Mail" button on the New York Times website -- if we can get it on the newspaper's "most emailed list", we can help make sure it goes as far as possible, as fast as possible. 

For full instructions on how to email the article, click here: www.350.org/nyt

After you've emailed the article, start thinking about ways you can join in this fight. If you're a student, you can join in on campus. If you're an alum, you can help pressure your alma mater. You can also push for divestment at your church or synagogue or mosque, or in the pension system that invests your retirement dollars.

We can make this whole movement go viral fast. Indeed, given the state of the climate science, we’ve got to. So please, share the NYT article by following these instructions.

I’m going off to bed because I’m exhausted. But I’m pretty sure the last month has been entirely worth it.

Onwards,

Bill McKibben for the whole crew at 350.org

 

 
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Super Typhoon Bopha has ripped through Palau

Aaron Packard
Posted by Aaron Packard - 12/04/12, 6:59pm

Right now, the Pacific Island nation of Palau is in a State of Emergency. Super Typhoon Bopha just ripped across the islands, causing what President Toribiong called “catastrophic destruction". While there is no reported loss of life yet, the winds and storm surge resulted in “scores of people … rendered homeless for the foreseeable future.”

As you can see, our friends in Palau have been a big part of the 350.org movement in the last few years. Earlier this year in preparation for the Connect the Dots day of action, we worked with our team there (led by Leonard Basilius at the Palau Community Action Agency) to hold the 350 Palau Youth Climate Leadership workshop. It's really tough to know them personally, know that they're hurting right now, and there's not much we can do to help. 

The most important thing we can do is stand is solidarity with them, make sure their story is heard, and keep organising and fighting to move the world beyond fossil fuels. I'm writing this from Auckland, New Zealand - where we are half way through the Pacific Youth Looking Beyond Disaster forum, which is a collaboration with UNESCO New Zealand. We just held a minute of silence in prayer for our brothers and sisters from Palau. 

The forum is made up of 50 young people from across New Zealand the South Pacific Islands, from Tokelau to Kiribati. We've been - as the name suggests - sharing stories of facing and recovering from disasters. We've also been planning a Pacific wide climate campaign - to be launched in a couple of days time, at Power Shift NZ-Pacific.

Starting on Friday, we've got 700 young people converging for Power Shift NZ-Pacific, where we'll be hearing from the likes of Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein to our Pacific organisers like Christina Ora and Brianna Fruean. Never before has the climate movement in the South Pacific come together like this. We'll report back on that soon, but for now, we're sending strength, hope and solidarity to our friends in Palau.

 

 
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Daniel Dancer's Latest 350 Masterpiece featured on Today Show

May Boeve
Posted by May Boeve - 12/02/12, 8:04am

470 Our dear friend and frequent collaborator Daniel Dancer -- who has worked with us from India to Washington, DC -- recently produced a new piece that was featured on the Today Show. In this example, Dancer worked with 1,200 students in North Carolina to send this climate message. You can read more about this piece, and Daniel's work, here.

 
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Climate march through the streets of Doha

Will Bates
Posted by Will Bates - 12/02/12, 1:05am

It wasn't the largest international climate march there has been -- except that it was the first ever protest march of any sort here in Doha, Qatar. Hundreds of people joined the march organized by Doha Oasis, IndyACT, and the Arab Youth Climate Movement. It was an unprecedented event for the local climate movement and a beautiful expression of the energy and passion of the Arab Youth Climate Movement.

It is abundantly clear that the UN meetings will not deliver action according to what science and justice demand until our movement outside the meetings is larger and more powerful. In that light, to see the movement pick up here on the streets of Doha and build momentum for the whole Arab region is most hopeful aspect of this convergence here in Doha. It's up to all of us to keep that momentum going now -- not just in the Arab world, but everywhere.

 
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Doing the Math: Carbon Zero

Phil Aroneanu
Posted by Phil Aroneanu - 11/30/12, 7:51am

We're doing the math, but what's the right answer? According to Alex Steffen, it's zero. Zero emissions, that is.

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Sooner or later (hopefully sooner) we're going to need to stop adding more CO2 to the atmosphere. In his new book, *Carbon Zero: Imagining cities that can save the planet*, Steffen argues that cities can and should take the lead in getting us there.

Steffen explores how through taking bold action now, cities can cut their emissions down to net-zero. By shifting away from energy-intensive centralized and car-dependent systems to people-focused communities and energy-frugal innovations cities can cut deeply the amount of energy they need to provide a high quality of life, and then meet the remaining demand with clean sources like wind and solar. Zero won't be easy. But zero is achievable. Steffen's book is a short, compelling tour of the urban future that invites us to imagine winning the climate fight.

Steffen's also a big supporter of 350. So he's inviting 350 supporters to read his book, for free. Just sign up at http://eepurl.com/snCQv to receive a PDF of Carbon Zero you can read and share.

Want to read it online? Grist is featuring the book for a week, sharing a chapter a day: http://grist.org/cities/how-cities-can-lead-the-climate-fight-introducing-alex-steffens-climate-zero/ Or, if you want to buy the Kindle edition to support the Carbon Zero project, it's available now on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AEWHU8E

 

 
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Divest!

Bill McKibben
Posted by Bill McKibben - 11/29/12, 7:00pm

The email below just went out to our supporters in the USA. Not on our list yet? Sign up here!

Greetings from the Do The Math tour bus!

We’re bouncing up the road to Madison, WI right now after another sold-out show in Chicago last night.

As you might already know, one of the goals of this tour is to launch a new fossil fuel divestment campaign at colleges and universities across the country -- it's a critical way to fight back against corporate polluters. 

Here’s how you can help:

If you’re a current student, please click here to join or start a campaign on your campus on our brand new website: gofossilfree.org

If you’re an alumnus/alumna, please click here to tell us where you went to school and join the national campaign. We’ll be in touch soon about how you can connect with and support students at your alma mater.

And if you're not a student or an alum, don't worry -- there will be lots for everyone to do in the weeks ahead. 

Why divestment? Well, we know that fossil fuel companies are principally concerned about two things: their bottom line and their public image. A nationwide movement forcing our schools to divest from fossil fuels will deal a serious blow to both.

Over 100 campuses have already joined the divestment campaign, and it’s generating real excitement everywhere we go. From big schools like the University of Wisconsin to small colleges like Middlebury, the campaign is picking up speed (at Harvard, a student resolution supporting divestment just passed with 72% of the vote!).

Now, it’s absolutely crucial that we keep the momentum going -- click here to get involved: www.gofossilfree.org

Many, many thanks,

Bill

P.S. You can also follow along with the divestment work on our brand-new Fossil Free Facebook and Twitter accounts. 

 
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Houston Residents Worry about Burden of Keystone XL Pipeline on Local Neighborhood

The 350.org Team
Posted by The 350.org Team - 11/29/12, 6:58pm

The post below is from our friend Cherri Foytlin over at the Bridge the Gulf Project.

juan parras

“We are part of America. We are a major city in America, but we do not need to be the sacrifice zone for the nation,” states Houston resident Juan Parras (pictured).

Parras joins a growing contingent of Houston residents concerned about the overburdening of minority and low-income communities in the area with the ill effects of energy production.

“There has been a lot of studies conducted, and one of them in particular is a study conducted on leukemia cases within a 2 mile radius of the Houston ship channel. The chances of contracting leukemia here are 56 percent, and of course, this is related to the petrochemical industry. We also have a lot of asthma, tumors - all of the things people do not want in their communities can be found here.” he explains.

As a founder of the group Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (TEJAS), Parras is no stranger in working to protect Houston neighborhoods from the hazards of air and water pollution. "[TEJAS] started doing environmental justice work here in Houston in the year 2004. There is a lot to be done here, because we have the highest concentration of refineries and petrochemical plants in the nation,” he says.

VIDEO: Community advocate Juan Parras of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services describes the area of Manchester - an environmental justice community in Houston, Texas. Like so many communities across the nation, Manchester disproportionately bears the burden of health problems due to industrial pollution in the area. According to Parras, the Valero plant in Manchester will most likely be a final destination for tar sands oil traveling through the Keystone XL Pipeline. Watch more: ‪Houston Residents Worry About Tar Sands Oil Pollution‬

 

 
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