350 Indonesia

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With words like that, it's easy to let ourselves dream that something major might be about to happen to fix the biggest problem the world has ever faced.

But we know that even if the President is sincere in every syllable, he's going to need lots of backup to help him get his point across in a city dominated by fossil fuel interests. And, given the record of the last four years, we know that too often rhetoric has yielded little in the way of results.

That's why we need you -- very badly -- to take a trip to our nation's capital on Feb. 17. We'll gather on the National Mall, in what is shaping up to be be the largest environmental rally in many years.

Click here to join us in DC: act.350.org/signup/presidentsday

Together we'll send the message loud and clear: 'If you're serious about protecting future generations from climate change, stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. If you can do that, Mr. President, we can all work together to help build a climate legacy that will be a credit to your critical eight years in office.'

Look -- numbers count. If 20,000 of us show up on February 17th, it will be noticed. We need you in that number. The President may have given us an opening, but it's up to us to go through it, and we need to do it together.

Thanks for all you've done to bring us this far, friends. Let's keep it up -- this is our chance.

Bill

We were very pleased to see that the Burlington Free Press named Bill McKibben "2012 Vermonter of the Year." Vermont is a state chock-full of heroes and heroines, so we're especially happy to see Bill recognized in this way, by neighbors, so to speak.

Some of the accomplishments they list are well known to many of you: three days in jail protesting Keystone XL, the 21-city Do the Math tour, founding 350.org. Some others may be less familiar: Bill has written more than a dozen books.

As a variety of Vermont based colleges and universities, including my alma mater Middlebury College (where Bill is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar), consider divestment, this couldn't come at a better time. As the Free Press article mentions, Bill's, and 350's, message is certainly breaking through!

RE-volv just a few days ago launched its first crowdfunding campaign for community-based solar energy on Indiegogo, accessible at www.solarseedfund.org. After being blogged about by our friends at Solar Mosaic, tweeted about by Bill McKibben, and featured in an article on Clean Technica our crowdfunding campaign has taken off. With just a week into the campaign, we’ve already raised more than half of our goal.

350.org’s Do the Math Tour asks people and institutions to divest from fossil fuels. As more people divest from fossil fuels if we can increasingly invest in renewable energy, we could create a very powerful dynamic and signal for change.

RE-volv is a nonprofit organization empowering people to invest collectively in renewable energy. RE-volv has started a revolving fund for community-based solar energy called the Solar Seed Fund. Here’s how it works: The Solar Seed Fund raises donations through crowdfunding to finance solar installations on community-serving organizations such as schools, universities, hospitals, and places of worship. RE-volv recoups the cost of the solar installation and earns a return on the investment through a 20-year solar lease agreement. The lease payments go back into the Solar Seed Fund allowing the fund to continuously grow and finance an expanding number of solar installations. The communities RE-volv serves save money on their electric bill and are able to showcase solar energy to their community members.

What’s exciting about this model is that each person’s donation isn’t just for one solar energy system. A donation in the Solar Seed Fund is like planting a seed for solar energy. Each solar energy system we install produces a dramatic return on its investment and is able to finance an additional three solar energy systems over the course of the lease. When RE-volv has many installations up and running, the revenues will produce more and more solar systems each year, which bring in more revenues creating a self-sustaining ever expanding renewable energy fund.

Solar is now cost effective. It pays for itself over time and can be a profitable investment. RE-volv’s unique revolving fund model, rather than generating returns for investors, reinvests the returns it earns in the revolving fund allowing it to grow exponentially.

This way, people who donate get a tax deduction, are making a meaningful impact in reducing carbon emissions, are spurring the renewable energy industry, and are educating countless communities about the benefits of solar. We can use this movement to demonstrate that people are willing to support renewable energy in the United States out of their own pockets as part of a collective effort with lots of people chipping in a little bit.

Great news! CREDO (formerly Working Assets) named 350.org one of their 2013 funding recipients. Thanks to all the CREDO members who nominated us!  

Both TD Economics and CIBC have recently said that without added capacity, "Canada's oil industry is facing a serious challenge to its long-term growth" and that “Canada needs pipe — and lots of it — to avoid the opportunity cost of stranding over a million barrels a day of potential crude oil growth.”

Remember that "Milkshake" scene in "There Will be Blood"--the one in which Daniel Day Lewis says "I drink your milkshake?" to a despondent Paul Dano? KXL would operate in a similar way. The KXL straw is so long and so big that it's needed to start to drain the tar sands. Without that long straw, the banks warn, the tar sands crude would stay in the ground. If you care about species extinction, sea level rise, and leaving behind a planet for our kids that's sort of the like the one we live on now, that's a good thing. 

The tar sands have about half--half!--the carbon that we can burn if we are going to avoid runaway climate change. The banks say there are four options to expand the market reach of Canadian crude: out through Canada's Western Coast, the U.S. Gulf Coast (KXL), Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. But the industry knows that it faces huge opposition if it wants to go west or east, so it's banking on the south.

That's why Keystone XL is so important to the industry, and that's why it needs to be stopped. The pundits and industry will tell you this oil is coming out one way or another. But the big banks don't agree. So let's listen to the banks, at least on this one, and leave it in the ground.

We just sent out this email to our friends around the world. Not on our email list yet? Sign up here to receive crucial updates from the climate movement. 

Dear friends,

I can’t wait for Global Powershift in Istanbul.

Apparently, neither can many of you. The response has been amazing so far, with thousands of applications from young leaders all over the globe. It’s a small taste of what this historic global gathering will be like.

To make sure everyone has enough time to apply, we've extended the application deadline until January 4. If you'd like to join us, please do apply as soon as you can.

In the meanwhile, watch this incredible video for a dose of inspiration. It's a preview of Global Power Shift, and you'll definitely want to watch it with the volume up high!

Please share this video far and wide -- together, we can make Global Power Shift as big and bold as possible.

Onwards,

May

P.S. -- In case you misplaced the application link, here it is again: apply.globalpowershift.org.

It's deja vu all over again. The State Department is gearing up to release its analysis of the environmental impacts of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The first one, you might remember, didn't include a substantive evaluation of the huge climate impacts of the pipeline; and State contracted with Cardno Entrix, a company that had ties to TransCanada, the company seeking a permit for the 1,700-mile project.