350

Dear friends and supporters,

2013 was a turning point for building the climate movement’s power around the world. 350.org started it off with huge momentum coming out of Bill McKibben’s 2012 Rolling Stone article and our subsequent Do the Math tour, which introduced a new way of thinking about the climate issue. That momentum only grew as the year progressed.

 

Our corresponding fossil fuel divestment campaign has spread like wildfire, and it has put the fossil fuel industry on the defensive. A recent study from Oxford University concluded that its growing faster than any previous divestment effort and could have a “far reaching impact” on the fossil fuel industry’s bottom line. As a result the new narrative of “unburnable carbon” is taking root and influencing political decision-making.

At our Global Power Shift event in Istanbul, we helped to train nearly 600 young activists from 135 countries in movement building and organizing, along with dozens of partner organizations. These activists then returned home to hold national power shift events in their own countries, from Guatemala to the Ukraine to India, and we are beginning to see the impacts of these actions as climate education and leadership campaigns take off in those regions.All through 2013, we continued to fight extreme energy projects — especially the Keystone XL pipeline, through the Forward on Climate rally, the biggest climate rally the U.S. has seen to date, birddogging the President and Secretary of State Kerry all year long, and our Draw the Line and Summer Heat events — but also other tar sands development, fracking, and coal development around the world. These fights are important in and of themselves, and they are also symbolic of the larger struggle and issues.At 350.org, we love “days of action” — movement moments when people everywhere come together in their communities to demonstrate the breadth, diversity, and power of the growing movement. There are few things as powerful as people taking action together while transcending boundaries of geography, language, and class. When we released the “Do the Math” video with Bill McKibben, we joined hundreds of thousands of people watching on “Earth Night” in living rooms and theaters around the world. We united at hundreds of events to “Draw the Line” on the Keystone XL pipeline. And after Typhoon Haiyan, we solemnly gathered for vigils around the world to tell the Philippines that “#WeStandWithYou”.

Whether we are fighting a single dirty pipeline, challenging the economic underpinnings of the fossil fuel industry, or campaigning for global solutions, we know that this fight takes stamina, perseverance, and hope. We are in it to win it — and are so grateful to stand together with all of you in the fight of our lives.

There’s so much more to share with you, so please read on to learn more about our work in 2013. We look forward to continuing our work with your generous support in 2014 and beyond. We cannot possibly do this without your support and activism. Thank you so very much!

Onwards,
May Boeve
Executive Director

Global Power Shift, Istanbul, Turkey, 2013

Do the Math, Bill McKibben speaks

Draw the Line demonstration

350.org Executive Director, May Boeve

February

Forward on Climate rally, Washington, DC

In February, we joined with our allies and converged in Washington, DC for “Forward on Climate”: the largest climate rally in United States history. Over 40,000 people braved the frigid temperatures to tell President Obama to reject the Keystone Pipeline and become a climate leader. We continued the fight throughout 2013, as evidenced through the 240 Keystone XL events held across the country, with at least one in each state.

 

All Year

Throughout the year, we worked with partners to spread the the “Go Fossil Free” campaign to divest from fossil fuel companies. We directly targeted the two things that corporate polluters care about most: their reputation and their money. In barely a year, the campaign has spread from campuses to churches and communities, and it has taken off in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and across Europe. A new study out of Oxford University has found “The outcome of the stigmatisation process, which the fossil fuel divestment campaign has now triggered, poses the most far-reaching threat to fossil fuel companies.” This is great news for our campaign, because while we have no illusions about divestment directly affecting the bottom line of fossil fuel companies, we hope that eventually, the bad publicity will limit their power, much like similar campaigns in the past did for the tobacco companies.

 

July

Summer Heat:Shut Down Brayton Point rally, Summer 2013 (Image by Jack Lepairz/WBUR)

Over the course of the final weeks of July, we worked with partners across the US to coordinate a series of bold direct actions. We called it “Summer Heat”, and from coast to coast, we joined with local activists to confront the fossil fuel industry and stand up for our future. From the Pacific Northwest to the coast of Maine, from the Keystone pipeline route to the White House, to the Utah desert where they’re developing the first tar sands mine in the US, we tried to get across the essential message: it’s time to stand up – peacefully but firmly — to the industry that is wrecking our future. As we said then: “as temperatures rise, so do we.” In November and December, during summer in Australia, we turned up the heat with a campaign there as well.

 

September

 

In September, Draw the Line events were held to draw the line against Keystone XL and the tar sands. Seattle had over a thousand people draw the line between the Puget Sound and the train tracks that could lead to exporting an inflated fossil fuel dependency. In Texas, folks drew the line against the southern leg of the Keystone XL Pipeline right on TransCanada’s home turf. In New Orleans, a marching band drew the line against continued threats to the Gulf Coast communities. In Nebraska, landowners built a barn directly in the line of the proposed northern segment of the Keystone XL pipeline. In Detroit, the line was drawn between residents and refineries burning tar sands.

 

Dear friends and supporters,

We could not do this work without financial contributions, so our immense thanks goes out to the thousands of supporters around the world who have made donations to strengthen our ability to work with and for the movement on climate change.
Our staff has grown to keep up with this growing movement, but we are lean and frugal, and strive to make every donation count.