We’ve really been on a roll this year.
And when I say we I don’t just mean 350.org the organization. I mean this big, broad movement we’ve built together — you, me, 350’s many partner organizations, the hundreds of local groups we work with every day, and all the many individuals around the world who take action in ways large and small.
This was such a landmark year that we had a really hard time picking just ten things. In fact, it really seems like we’re getting close to a sort of climate-action tipping point. (Of course, we’re not kidding ourselves into thinking that the fossil fuel industry is going to sit back and let it all happen — so next year we’re going even bigger.)
But since we had to pick some number of awesome things to highlight, here are the “top 10” amazing things we did together in 2015 (in no particular order):
10) We showed that we are greater than tar sands
Photo: Fatin Chowdhury |
Throughout North America, the fight to stop the Canadian tar sands reached a fever pitch this year. Led by First Nations and other Indigenous groups, and backed up by farmers, ranchers, labor unions, and organizers in every corner of the continent, this movement stalled pipelines, called out hypocrisy, and took to the streets for events like Toronto’s “March for Jobs, Justice, and the Climate” and a “Climate Welcome” for new Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. |
9) We made fracking a contentious political issue in Brazil
Photo: Oriana Eliçabe and Paulo Lima |
The campaign to ban fracking in Brazil heated up big time — to the point that organizers started to feel some serious pressure from industry and the government. From interrupting a fracking auction with Indigenous voices to sparking protests at Brazilian embassies around the world, our team in Brazil is causing a stir. |
8) We shut down one of the biggest coal mines in Europe
Photo: Paul Wagner |
To be fair, it was just for a day… but nobody’s stopping there. The “Ende Gelände” action — translated as “here, and no further” — was organized by grassroots climate activists to shut down the Garzweiler lignite mine in Germany. Most of the 1,500 people who participated in this epic act of civil disobedience had never done anything like it before. |
7) We pulled the rug out from under Australia’s biggest coal project
Photo: Jeff Tan |
Our friends at 350 Australia — along with a big coalition of partners — helped pressure over 14 banks to pull funding from Adani’s proposed giant coal mine in the Galilee Basin. |
6) We pushed California to divest the United States’ second largest pension fund
5) We called out one the richest, most powerful corporations on the planet
4) We mobilized against “free trade” agreements that consolidate corporate power
3) We raised the bar on divestment commitments — to $3.4 trillion (and counting!)
2) We stopped the Keystone XL pipeline
Photo: Shadia Fayne Wood |
President Obama may have struck the final blow, but it was the climate movement that stopped the world’s most notorious pipeline. When we started fighting this thing, they said it was a done deal. It was a long, hard fight, but it was worth it. Let that be a lesson to all the pipeline builders, coal financiers, and frackers of the world: Don’t bet against the climate movement. We’re playing for keeps. |
1) We helped make the Paris Climate Agreement happen
The Paris Climate Agreement doesn’t get us where the world needs to be. But we have a deal, and that’s extraordinary. Although our plans had to change following the terrorist attacks in Paris in November, the climate movement really came together before and during the big summit — for the Global Climate March on November 29th, which brought 775,000 people into the streets in over 2,300 places around the world, and for the final mobilization in Paris at the end of the talks. Now it’s up to us to close the gap between the rhetoric of the deal and the reality of this crisis. And we’re ready. |