Joining Powerful Grassroots Climate Movement: The Next Phase

(Two Takes)

(1)

1Sky and 350.org Merge under 350.org Banner to Unite
Large-scale Powerful Grassroots Climate Movement

Statement by 350.org

Common Dreams
July 7, 2011

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/04/07-5

Washington, DC -- Even as Congress passes laws designed
to gut the Clean Air Act and prevent action on global
warming, the merger of two of the strongest climate
campaigns signals the beginnings of a powerful mass
movement for real action.

Grassroots groups 350.org and 1Sky today announced they
will combine under the 350.org banner and dramatically
expand their work. "In light of last night's vote, it
is more important than ever to unite and train a
bigger, more powerful grassroots movement capable of
attacking our corporate polluter opponents and fighting
for a real clean energy future. This moment is our call
to action," said Liz Butler, Campaign Director of 1Sky.

Leading up to the 2010-midterm elections, dirty energy
industries spent over $500 million on lobbying and
campaign expenditures. That number is likely to be
dwarfed in 2012, and the new organization believes it
requires swift, decisive, and powerful response.

"People are excited about this because we haven't been
doing it: we haven't been collaborating enough, we
haven't been connecting and mobilizing enough local
leaders across the country. This is a critical moment
for the environmental movement, for the American people
as a whole. The new 350.org is a huge opportunity to
grow the people power needed to counteract corporate
influence in politics and reverse the climate crisis,"
stated May Boeve, Executive Director of 350.org, who
will head the newly merged group.

The new organization, 350.org, has already begun work
in the United States to train and mobilize a powerful
large-scale movement of individuals, businesses,
organizations, and community leaders pushing for
climate action. The U.S. campaign will complement and
support the international activities of 350.org,
overseen by a board chaired by 350 Founder Bill
McKibben.

In an essay announcing the merger, McKibben and new
350.org board member, author and activist Naomi Klein,
wrote, "The idea is not to supplant the Washington
green groups, but instead to give the whole movement
new clout-enough clout to withstand the crushing power
of oil money."

(2)

Joining 350.Org: The Next Phase

By Naomi Klein
naomiklein.org

http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2011/04/joining-350-org-next-phase

Today I joined the newly formed Board of Directors of
350.org, coinciding with a range of exciting new
changes at the organization. I have been a supporter of
350.org since I first heard about the wacky plan to
turn a wonky scientific target into a global people's
movement, and I'm thrilled and honored to be officially
joining the team.

In the past three years, we have all watched the number
"350" morph into a beautiful and urgent S.O.S., rising
up from every corner of the globe, from Iceland to the
Maldives, Ethiopia to Alaska. In the process, 350.org
helped to decisively shift the climate conversation
from polar bears to people - the people whose island
nations, cultures and livelihoods will disappear unless
those of us who live in the high emitting countries
embrace a different economic path.

What has always mattered most about that magic number
is that we are already well past it. That means there
is no time to waste on stalling tactics like action
plans that only get serious in 2020 and shell games
like cap-and-trade. Our single goal has to be radically
cutting our emissions right here, right now - not a
decade from now, and not by paying someone else to do
it for us.

If there is one thing that the failure of cap-and-trade
has taught us, it is that trying to win this battle by
lobbying elites behind closed doors is a disastrously
losing strategy. Not only did it fail to deliver even
weak climate legislation in the U.S., it made climate
action look like just another opportunity for cronyism,
helping to alienate a large sector of the public.

As 350.org has known all along, the real task is to
build the kind of mass movement that politicians cannot
afford to ignore. That means showing how making the
deep emission cuts that science demands is not some
dour punishment that will destroy our economy (as the
Koch-funded right is perpetually claiming) but rather
our best chance of fixing an economic system that is
failing us on every level. Shifting to renewable energy
and re-localizing our economies could create millions
of good new jobs, while leaving us with cleaner cities
and a healthier food system. And as 350.org's Global
Work Party showed, a big part of averting climate chaos
involves rebuilding and strengthening our frayed
communities - and that is a joyful process.

But it's not enough to dreamily imagine the world we
want. We also have to confront, head on, the forces
that are determined to use their power and wealth to
stop us. Which is why 350.org just launched a campaign
targeting the deeply anti-democratic influence that
major polluters have over the political process in
Washington, starting with the biggest fish of them all,
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (chamber.350.org).

I see this campaign as a breakthrough moment in the
history of the climate movement, recognition that the
struggles for economic justice, real democracy and a
livable climate are all profoundly interconnected. As
350.org founder Bill McKibben puts it: unless we go
after the "money pollution," no campaign against real
pollution stands a chance. The same can be said for any
progressive goal, from labor rights to net neutrality.
As we recognize these (and many other) connections
among our various "issues," I am convinced that a new
kind of climate movement will emerge, one that is
larger, deeper and more powerful than anything we have
seen yet. There is no question that 350.org will be
helping to lead the way, and I can't wait to see what
comes next.
____________

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist and
syndicated columnist and the author of the
international and New York Times bestseller The Shock
Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, now out in
paperback. Her earlier books include the international
best-seller, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies
(which has just been re-published in a special 10th
Anniversary Edition); and the collection Fences and
Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the
Globalization Debate (2002). To read all her latest
writing visit www.naomiklein.org. You can follow her on
Twitter: @[log in to unmask]

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