Three Cycling Clubs in San Leonardo Nueva Ecija, Phillippines
came together to push for a response to climate change
The Ecology Club in Uvira, RD Congo
planted lots of trees to connect the dots
From our friends in Oman
which had its very first hurricane just a few years ago
We Mean it, Bank of America: No More Money for Coal!
Morning came early for us yesterday in Charlotte, NC. In the days leading up to May 9th, busloads of activists from Miami to Olympia had joined the North Carolina community to protest the Bank of America Shareholder meeting. They joined us to stand together and stand up to the big Bank that calls Charlotte home.
In the last two years, Bank of America has thrown more money at the coal industry than any other bank -- more than $4.2 million. We know that by investing in the dirty energy that is cooking our planet and making us sick, Bank of America is as responsible for climate change as the coal companies themselves.
That’s why yesterday, Climate Activists joined a movement fighting many of Bank of America’s short-sighted investment policies: racist and predatory lending, robo-signed foreclosures, loans for mountaintop removal. Nearly 1,000 of us marched through the Charlotte streets to the Shareholder meeting, flooding the intersection and halting traffic for a two-hour rally. Meanwhile, inside the shareholder meeting, members of impacted communities like Larry Gibson and Adam Hall of the West Virginia coal fields shared the experience of living life as Bank of America’s collateral damage.
While we had an incredible morning of singing, marching, and uniting our struggles on BofA’s doorstep, we wish these protests weren’t necessary in the first place. We want our big financial institutions like Bank of America to work for America. We want an economy that doesn’t prioritize quarterly profit when people’s lives and the future of our planet are at stake.
At the end of the day, we know that BofA CEO Brian Moynihan heard our cries, and plowed on with business as usual. But as long as Bank of America continues to put our homes (both our houses and our planetary home) at risk, we’ll be there to meet them with people power.
Bellingham, WA USA connects the dots between coal trains and climate change
Here's a video and post from Jill MacIntyre Witt, one of the organizers of the event in Bellingham:
A walk and rally was organized May 5th in conjunction with hundreds of similar actions around the world. In Bellingham and Whatcom County, a proposed coal export terminal is expected to enter a public comment period in Summer, 2012 which will call on people everywhere to raise their voices of concern for this project. Please visit powerpastcoal.org to learn how to share your concerns, no matter where you live in the world, we need to curb coal exporting and burning. The time is now to take action! Thank you 350.org for uniting everyone around the world to address our climate crisis.
Wiping the smirk off their faces.
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Dear friends,
Today, we get a powerful new tool to take on the fossil fuel industry.
I just got off the stage with Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Keith Ellison at a big rally at the Capitol to launch a new piece of legislation that would repeal $113 billion of tax-breaks, handouts, and subsidies for the fossil fuel industry over the next 10 years.
You see, not only is the fossil fuel industry the richest on earth, but any of us who pay taxes write it a hefty check each year. It’s as if we’re paying them a performance bonus for wrecking the climate. We’ll never get to renewable energy if we keep handing gobs of money to oil and coal and gas.
The bill introduced today would strip away these outrageous subsidies. As you can imagine, the fossil fuel industry is going to fight back hard, so we need to come out as strong as possible.
Please check out what’s in the bill and add your name to this push: www.350.org/subsidies
This won’t be any normal legislative push.
First, that’s just not how we do things here at 350.org. But more importantly, we know that if we confine this effort to Capitol Hill, the fossil fuel industry will just drown us in dollars -- they could spend $100 million fighting this thing and still have plenty left over. So, we’re going to have to find other currencies to work in: our creativity, energy, and grassroots organizing power. This needs to be a "people’s bill" through and through.
In the coming days, we’ll be back to you with more info about how you can get involved in everything from getting your member of Congress on the record, to helping beat back industry propaganda, even a way to give recalcitrant politicians special blazers, outfitted with the logos of the companies that give them cash.
Last weekend we Connected the Dots and saw the human face of global warming (if you want to relive a little bit of our day of action, take a minute to watch this video right now -- it’ll move you to tears and then to action). With that in our hearts, we need to take the fight to the fossil fuel industry's own turf.
Beginning now our job is wipe the smirk off the faces of corporate polluters. We’re going to have fun with this, and it all starts by signing on here: www.350.org/subsidies
Onwards,
Bill McKibben
VIDEO: The Whole World Connects the Dots
We just sent this email out to our global email list -- not getting our emails yet? Signup here.
Dear friends,
It’s nearly impossible to capture the feeling of watching people all around the world Connect the Dots last weekend, but this video comes close.
Please take 90 seconds to watch it and spread it around: www.climatedots.org/watch
As I watched the pictures roll in from events around the world, I kept thinking: “People everywhere are waking up -- and we’re all in this together."
We know that from here, the weather will only keep getting weirder, and the seas will keep rising -- and as more and more of us feel the impacts of climate change, we’ll need to continue connecting the dots. I want to pass along two important tools you can use to keep telling this crucially important story:
First, we just launched a new project to help people everywhere share their stories about how climate change is impacting them. If you have been directly impacted by climate change, please take a photo with your personal dot, or submit your story to our new Tumblr -- the more stories we can collect, the stronger our message will be. Click here to submit your story.
Also, if you’re ready to educate others and help your community connect the dots, you can download this amazing presentation and bring these stories from around the world to your friends and neighbors. The photos from this weekend are incredibly moving - and the presentation is a great way to display them in a way that can move people to action at your school, your church, or at a local library. Click here to check it out.
We’re also gearing up for big work ahead, and you’ll be hearing from us about bold campaigns that will put the fossil fuel industry on the defensive and highlight climate solutions around the world.
But before we do, I recommend watching the video, spreading it around, and taking a deep breath to prepare for the work ahead.
Onwards,
May Boeve for the 350.org Team
Love Wins
We're celebrating the news that President Obama just endorsed marriage equality for the first time. What does marriage equality have to do with climate change? We believe that a society that believes in treating all people equally -- no matter their race, class, gender, religion, or sexual identity -- is a society that's more likely to extend that same respect and care to future generations and the planet.
Just as important, our movement is only possible because of the love and personal connections that so many of our organizers share. When you look through the incredible photos from this weekend's Climate Impacts Day events, for example, you'll see people of all ages, races, religions, and sexual orientations taking part. We're a diverse movement and we support the rights of each and every one of our members.
We're also incredibly thankful for the support that many LGBT activists and organizations have given to our work -- and especially proud of our own LGBT staff, interns, and volunteers who have made climate activism a career here at 350.org. Here in the Bay Area, our first 350.org office was a room in a big shared space that included one of our all-time heroes, Kip Williams, who went on to co-found GetEQUAL, one of the groups that helped lead the fight for marriage equality. Years later, we used GetEQUAL megaphones to power our chants at the White House during the Keystone XL sit-ins. And we were joined at those demonstrations by equal rights advocates like Lt. Dan Choi, who gives powerful testimony in the video below about why he was willing to risk arrest to stop the pipeline:
So, on this historic day, we share our most hearfelt congratulations to everyone who believes in love -- especially the thousands of activists and organizers who fought long and hard for this victory on the path towards greater equality for all. It gives us hope.
This picture meant a lot
It comes from the heart of tarsands country, in Fort McMurray Alberta. And here's the note that came with it:
Bozdarevac, Serbia
Where April brought new record temperatures. "We don't have four seasons any more."