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.
That doesn’t sound like a movement that is paralyzed by its fear. In fact, that sounds like a movement that is ready to end business as usual for the fossil fuel industry.
The amazing summer of actions will continue in Montana this weekend, where plans are in the works for very civil disobedience to stop a new coal mine the size of an entire city, and in Texas, for the Keystone XL pipeline blockade.
And of course, we’re going to continue to do all we can to eliminate the industry’s 113 billion dollars in taxpayer giveaways. Plans are underway to ask hard questions about fossil fuel subsidies at campaign events coast-to-coast, with much more to come. We are also looking in to how we can make sure that science and climate change are a key part of the national debate this fall.
The point is: yes, the math is very hard. But we still have a shot at beating it, as long as we keep building on the creativity and courage our movement is already showing — and learning and having fun while doing it.
So, thank you for all you do to build this movement, and for all we will do together in the future.
-May for the whole 350.org team
PS – Bill’s article has now been shared over 100,000 times on Facebook alone — I’m guessing you’ve seen it yourself, but if you haven’t yet shared it with friends or your social networks, please take a moment to do that here: 350.org/reckoning