350 Updates

Summer of Solidarity Timeline

Ashley Malyszka
Posted by Ashley Malyszka - 08/07/12, 3:09pm

This email just went out to folks our U.S. network.

Friends-

I have to admit, the last few emails we sent around -- the ones about Bill's article in Rolling Stone, about the 'scary new climate math' -- were, well, scary.

I think it's important to admit that sometimes. The fear is natural, and the arguments Bill laid out -- that the fossil fuel industry plans to burn five times more carbon than we can afford if we want to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius -- is particularly grim (It doesn't help that there's a massive drought on, and the weather keeps getting weirder). When I read Bill’s article, I found myself taking a whole lot of deep breaths.

Those deep breaths are important--we've got a lot of work to do in the months ahead and we're going to need stamina. As we laid out last week, we'll be launching a nationwide campaign to take on the fossil fuel industry head-on as soon as the election is over, building on the amazing organizing already underway around the globe.

Just last week, the US climate movement showed us just what it means to organize with courage, even when faced with foes like the fossil fuel industry. Across the country, protests rumbled the industry, and it looks like it's just the beginning.

We put together a timeline that shows just how much our movement has been able to accomplish in a few short months this summer. It’s worth taking a moment to appreciate how far we’ve come -- even as we keep our eye on the tough road ahead.

Click here for the Summer of Solidarity timeline: www.350.org/sos/

In Washington DC, thousands of people marched to stop the dangerous gas drilling technique known as fracking. In West Virginia, 50 people marched on to the largest mountaintop removal coal mine in the U.S. and shut it down. And in Texas, 70 people trained and prepared for a blockade of construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Then, on Sunday, 500 people held a "human oil spill" in Vermont to protest a new tar sands pipeline proposed to run through New England.

 
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Great climate coverage on Democracy Now!

Jamie Henn
Posted by Jamie Henn - 08/03/12, 11:10am

Our friends over at Democracy Now! just did a couple great interviews on climate change, first with 350.org founder Bill McKibben and second with former climate-skeptic Dr. Richard Muller. Take a look: 

Bill McKibben of 350.org: Even Industry-Funded Climate Change Deniers Can't Ignore Planet's Warming

 

Climate Skeptic, Koch-Funded Scientist Richard Muller Admits Global Warming Real and Humans the Cause

 
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It's time for an energy upgrade!

Chaitanya Kumar
Posted by Chaitanya Kumar - 08/02/12, 1:35am

The following email just went out to the 350 network in India...

 Dear friends in India (who can access the electricity to read this message),

Sign the petition:

Let the Great Indian Outage be the Great India Wake-Up Call. It’s time for an energy upgrade.

Sign the petition to the Prime Minister:

www.350.org/upgrade

It’s time for an upgrade!

By now all the major media agencies in the world have covered what is being dubbed the Great Indian Outage. 600 million people were left without power for more than 6 hours over two consecutive days, crippling the economy and plunging the nation into a state of chaos. 

Unfortunately, most analyses missed one of the most important underlying reasons for the blackout: our dependence on centralized, unreliable, inefficient, dirty coal power. Coal helped cause this crisis -- it's not a solution. Please take a moment to sign a petition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling for an energy upgrade:

www.350.org/upgrade

Now, all of us living in India know that this massive blackout is actually just a scaled-up version of what most of us experience day in and day out, and what many of our brothers and sisters across the subcontinent experience throughout their lives. But regardless of our experience or reactions, this can be an important wake-up call regarding our country’s energy future. 

It's true that electricity demand is outstripping supply, but that has as much to do with climate change impacts as anything else. The weak monsoon has depleted hydropower supply, and unrelenting heat waves are increasing energy demand. Add to that a poor, centralized grid infrastructure already failing to electrify 400 million people -- now failing the rest of us -- and a limited coal supply making even coal power generation a struggle.

The coal industry and the media are obsessed with more mining as the solution to these problems, ergo seeking faster environmental, land, and forest clearances. With more than 500 GW of thermal power in the pipeline, most analysts believe that rising coal prices and lower tariffs will render these plants unviable. Add to this the costs of health, forests, and displacement of people and wildlife.

We can do far better with decentralized renewable energy! India has a high potential for solar and wind energy, which offer reliable power and would dramatically reduce our need to build more coal-fired power plants. The state of Gujarat has shown great promise in handling its grids and introducing solar in a big way, offering policies for other states to emulate and transition away from coal.

It’s time for an upgrade in India, and we have some plans in the works to do just that. To start with, please sign this petition demanding that the Prime Minister of India revamp our infrastructure, including significant investment in energy efficiency and decentralized renewable energy: www.350.org/upgrade.

Coal-fired power should be a thing of the past. This crisis has given us an opportunity to show the world that we can bring about the next energy revolution in India. We have to seize this opportunity, and we want you to be a part of it.

On we go,

Chaitanya and the 350 India team

P.S. If you're not already plugged in with us on Facebook, please do join the 350 India community there: www.facebook.com/350India

 
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Call for Applications: South Asia Training for Trainers in Dhaka.

Ayesha Dsouza
Posted by Ayesha Dsouza - 07/31/12, 3:27am

As part of our movement building efforts in South Asia, 350.org in collaboration with the Bangladesh Youth Movement for Climate (BYMC) and with the generous support of the British Council,  Bangladesh are organizing a Training for Trainers (T4T) for 25 select young people across the South Asian region from September 25 - 28, 2012 at the British Council in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The T4T is meant for activists, civil society leaders and environmentally active youth from across South Asia who will be equipped with vital training resources that will be useful throughout their working career. The workshop itself will be focussed on providing specific skills on ways to build a campaign, building a movement, online campaigning, story telling and various other skills that modern day campaigners would need to work towards achieving their goals. 

In addition, the training for trainers or T4T brings with it a new curriculum that offers the participants an experiential based training. Such a training entails activities that allow the participants to deeply reflect on the issues of our times and develop a strong shared purpose and ways to achieve their goals.

If this is something you are interested in or know of someone who might be interested, then apply or forward this page. One can be part of it by filling in the application here. The T4T will be a 4 day intense training program designed for young people between the age group of 20-40. The deadline for receiving completed applications is August 18, 2012. The final selection of the applicants will be based on the answers in the form.

Besides acquiring various skills as mentioned earlier, the trainers will also practice the training themselves. One of the expectations of the participants before selecting them would be to organize a similar T4T in their own region and that way we continue to build the movement. These trainers will also be encouraged to form local groups that will organize local campaigns which 350.org can support through various resources.  

350.org has already organized T4T's in a few countries, below you can see an image from a training for trainers conducted in May this year in Rishikesh, India that had participants from all over the country. The programme has received a great response and outcome with more trainers cropping up around the planet and local groups being formed regularly. We understand that climate change cannot be solved overnight or even over a few years, it will take a sustained effort and immense dedication to the cause for addressing it and nurturing such dedication in the new generation is vital.

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INFOGRAPHIC: Funding Climate Change with Taxpayer Money

Duncan Meisel
Posted by Duncan Meisel - 07/26/12, 10:55am

Click to see the whole thing...

 
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Keystone XL is like your jerk ex-boyfriend

Duncan Meisel
Posted by Duncan Meisel - 07/26/12, 8:04am

It's back again. Click here to send a message to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisting that she review the climate impacts of the pipeline and say no to more dirty tar sands oil.

 
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Young Evangelicals in the US Stepping Up on Climate Action

Anonymous
Posted by Anonymous - 07/24/12, 8:43am

Guest post by Ben Lowe

393 Good news: Evangelical Christians are stepping back up to be part of overcoming the climate crisis.  

After months of careful preparation, a new national advocacy initiative called Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (Y.E.C.A.) has just gone live and can be found at YECAction.org as well as on Facebook (facebook.com/YECAction) and Twitter (@YECAction).

Y.E.C.A. was founded by a core group of evangelical students and young professionals at a planning retreat convened by the Evangelical Environmental Network in Washington, DC, at the beginning of the year.  Y.E.C.A. quickly grew into a national initiative with activists and supporters across the United States.  In this short time, Y.E.C.A. leaders have already met with many senior evangelical leaders, as well as senior officials at the White House, to introduce Y.E.C.A. and share their concerns.

 
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Big Polluter Pressure on EPA's new Mercury Rule

May Boeve
Posted by May Boeve - 07/23/12, 8:00am

24 hours after we joined forces with partners at the Sierra Student Coalition to Stand with Lisa Jackson against big polluters, the EPA's new mercury rule was back in the news. The issue in question concerns a review of five particular plans throughout the U.S., after information has provided by industry.  It is clear that industry pressure is not letting up one bit, and it makes the cause for this campaign even more clear. Lisa Jackson is a key figure within the EPA and has in a number of occasions pledged to bring the concerns of people against those of polluters. Read more about it here.

This move by the EPA is not a good sign and we need to keep up the focus of our campaigns against polluters, so that we can show a stark choice between the priorities of coal companies, and the concerns of all of us as we strive to address the climate crisis.

This summer has given many more Americans many more reasons to understand what climate change can do, and we need to be using every tool at our disposal to reduce emissions. The EPA's mercury rule helps do that, and we will work with our allies to make sure the rule in question doesn't weaken.

 
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