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We asked our organizers in Salvador, Brazil, to tell us more about the story behind one of the most iconic images of Climate Impacts Day. Below you can read the whole story: 

The picture above is part of an action carried out by 350.org volunteers from the city of Salvador, Brazil, during Climate Impacts Day (5/5). It may even seem an exaggerated situation, but it highlights what is going to happen – in fact, already happening – in the lives of people living in coastal areas. It is estimated that over 600 million of people live in areas at risk with sea level rise.  Only in Brazil, they are 42 million – a quarter of the entire population!

During a 350.org workshop, the group came out with the idea of organizing an action that could draw people’s attention to the danger we are facing as extreme weather get more frequent and extreme. However, for one person in special, what happened in that scene was not something new. This person was Raphael Gomes, the volunteers’ coordinator of Salvador group.

Raphael and his family lived in a city in the countryside of Bahia where they struggled during the droughts season year after year. When he moved to the capital, Salvador, his family faced floods. Thus, when he stood there watching the little Naira Cerqueira, 7, in the scene in which the sea water floods her residence, Raphael was reliving his own childhood. “Those were tough times, because for a kid to wake up and witness all of his possessions being damaged by the rain is something that takes time to be overcome – although we never forget it.”, he says.

Fortunately, the life’s difficulties would not dishearten him. On the contrary, they served as an incentive for Raphael to move towards a path of solidarity and much engagement and commitment to causes related to environment protection. “I believe that everything that happened in my life brought me closer to environmental issues. Not in a passive way, but it has created in me a truly need to motivate and mobilize people to comprehend the causes and consequences of climate change. In fact, it is more than that: it is also about showing them what the solutions are and who are the responsible for making them true”, he says.

Today, it has been three years since Raphael is leading the group and, despite the young age, 21, he is sure about what he wants: “We want to build a movement in which people can be empowered to make a difference. The picture we took at the beach is a small sample of this – but we want and need to do much more. We are very pleased with the photo’s repercussion, and we want more and more to engage the media and the society”, he states.

Text and Featured Image: Diêgo Lôbo

 

This post was written by Deidre Smith, lead organizer for 350 New Mexico     On Tuesday, 350 New Mexico and a coalition of statewide activists and partners, flocked to our largest local utility, PNM’s annual shareholder meeting to deliver a message to shareholders and the public: “San Juan Coal is a Dangerous Investment. Transition to Clean Energy NOW”

San Juan generating Station is our state’s biggest contributor to climate change and most dire threat to our land and people. Our local campaign along with the longtime work of partners has brought PNM to a pivotal decision point where they will be forced to make changes to the coal plant-yesterday we made it clear that we want clean energy NOT just “clean-up”.

With silent protesters and an allied shareholder to deliver our message inside, a total rally die-in and more folks showing up at PNM than ever before delivering our peoples response to a PNM executive, we made sure San Juan Coal impacts and our demands were on the shareholder agenda. This event added strength and connectedness to the building movement in New Mexico- and we're not stopping here. What a VICTORY for the movement!

Our communities are connecting to apply people powered pressure to work toward a shared vision of clean energy for our state. 350NM is stepping up our game for state, and toward a goal that is as real as it is vital: 350 ppm.

Check out this media coverage of 350.org and Connect the Dots from Yakutsk, Russia. You might not be able to speak Russian, but you can probably recognize the numbers in the article!

We just sent this email out to everyone who signed onto our subsidies petition. Haven't signed on yet? Get to it: www.350.org/subsidies

Dear friends,

When we launched our campaign to end fossil fuel subsidies last week, we didn't quite know what to expect.

Well, we've got good news: in just a few days, you were joined by over 30,000 people who have signed onto our call to action -- including thousands of people who have never before been a part of the growing 350.org network. We launched this campaign with a powerful rally in DC that brought together environmental groups, Congressman Keith Ellison, 350.org founder Bill McKibben, Senator Bernie Sanders, and many more. 

Check out the fantastic video from the campaign launch, then share it far and wide with just a few clicks: www.350.org/subsidies-launch

 

Eliminating these subsidies to fossil fuel companies is a crucial first step to going on the offensive against corporate polluters: the guys who are making record-breaking profits while emitting record-breaking amounts of climate pollution.

Here at 350.org headquarters, we were honestly a bit worried that a campaign on subsidies wouldn't fire people up. After all, the very word -- "subsidies" -- doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. The complexity of the U.S. tax code can be a bit dry and academic, and we were concerned eyes would glaze over as we started to focus on a specific piece of legislation. 

Well, it turns out that people everywhere are ready to take on corporate polluters. We're fed up with the fossil fuel industry's habit of distorting our democracy and wrecking our planet, and Americans from coast to coast have decided that these guys don't deserve our money. The latest polling indicates that 70% of Americans opposed federal subsidies for the fossil fuel industry -- including majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. It's hard to get 70% of Americans to agree on just about anything, so we're taking that as a good sign. 

We'll be ramping up this campaign in the days and weeks ahead, but for now the most important thing you can do watch and share this video: www.350.org/subsidies-launch

Thank you for leading this fight. 

Onwards,

Jamie Henn for the 350.org Team

MORE LINKS AND INFO

Do Americans support or oppose subsidies for fossil fuels? |  Yale Project on Climate Change Communication go.350.org/KqKbfH

Yesterday marked the start of a week of action in support of a Robinhood Tax (Financial Transaction Tax) that would put a tiny tax on the financial sector and generate billions of dollars, pounds, euros that can be put towards fighting climate change and poverty. Some 350 organizers were involved in similar local events roughly a year ago (the photo to the right is from Cairo, Egypt), and now is the time to dig out those robinhoood suits again.

The week of action is planned to coincide with with the G8 leaders summit at Camp David in the USA (May 18-19th) and a meeting of European leaders (May 23rd) where the Financial Transaction Tax is on the agenda. Activities are planned in over 30 countries. A huge rally of nurses dressed in Robin Hood hats are marching on the streets of Chicago, Robin Hoods are gathering on Mount Fuji in Japan, outside Big Ben in Britain, in Italy, India, Brazil, Zambia, Malawi, Belgium and more.

Check out the infographic and video below for more background about the Robindhood Tax, and visit www.robinhoodtax.org for more information about the week of action.

On May 10th, 350.org joined with Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Keith Ellison to launch a new bill that would cut $113 billion in subsidies to the coal, oil and gas lobby over the next 10 years.

Almost everyone in the country opposes handing cash over to big oil, big coal, and big gas—the numbers are in the 70% range among Republicans, Independents, and Democrats. That means that we'll be working to get all sorts of people on board with this fight, maybe even that cranky uncle of yours who doesn't believe in global warming but wants to cut government spending.

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 billion fighting this thing and still come out on top. 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.

Stay tuned for photos, video and more info coming in soon! 

 

I haven’t written you about the Keystone Pipeline for several weeks, because I haven’t known quite what to say. But many things are moving, and here’s how the situation seems to me right now:

1)  TransCanada, as expected, re-applied for a permit last week from the State Department, and just as they said last November — State said they would have an answer sometime in 2013. An open question is whether or not the State Department will do a real review, and aggressively investigate the climate implications of tar sands oil, which they punted on last time.  

Another open question, of course, is whether after the election the President -- whomever it may be --  could just give the pipeline a green light no matter what. It's important that between now and then we strenuously and continually emphasize that building this pipeline means more tar sands oil burned, and that the climate change implications of that are unacceptable. 

2)  The fossil fuel lobby in Congress keeps trying to approve the pipeline without any review at all. Members of the House said they won’t approve the new transportation bill without Keystone in it; happily, the Senate conferees, have pledged not to put the pipeline back in play just to get a bill. (But we're always a bit wary of Washington pledges).

3) We also found out that the climate-denying, union-busting, radical billionaire Koch Brothers will be among the prime beneficiaries of the pipeline. It was revealed by intrepid investigative reporting that Koch Industries has been masking their investments in the tar sands, while pumping millions into efforts to push this and other pipelines. None of us deny that some union jobs would be created by this pipeline, but it's now clear that many more will be put under attack as Koch money pours into the coffers of the radicals seeking to destroy both unions and our climate. 

We frankly don’t yet know how this all is going to play out—and it’s frustrating as hell. 

Leaders in the Senate and the White House have given assurances that they won’t OK the pipeline—the administration even issued a veto threat over the transportation bill if it included Keystone. We’ll see how good those assurances are in the coming weeks, and we’ll let you know if there are politician’s offices we need you to call, email, or occupy.

Of course the Southern leg of the pipeline is already on its way to being built - something our friends in Texas are doing all they can to fight, even as you read this.

Meanwhile, science marches on. Dr. James Hansen reiterated the case against tar sands in the New York Times last week, pointing out that the deposits contain "twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history." If we burn them on top of all the coal and oil and gas we're already using, "concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era" - a wildly different and likely unlivable earth. 

And politics marches on too. We’re coming to think that it’s at least as important to tackle the fossil fuel industry directly as they try to tackle our win on the Keystone pipeline. Last Thursday Thursday Bernie Sanders introduced a bill that would strip $113 billion in subsidies from coal, gas, and oil companies over the next decade. That’s enough money to weatherize more than half the single family and mobile homes in America. We hope you’ll help: www.350.org/subsidies

I don’t know how Keystone is going to come out—but whatever happens, the organizing we manage to do together will have a lot to do with the final result. We’ve learned an awful lot together about how to take on the bad guys. We’ll fight them pipeline by coal mine by fracking well— and surely call on you for more rapid-response actions when the need arises — but we’ve also got to go after the core of their power. That’s what we need to make the next year all about.

Thanks,

--Bill

 

...that show us how much we need to connect the dots.

The photo on the left is from Austin, Texas -- here's the story behind it:

Almost one year after severe drought conditions contributed to wildfires that burned 96% of the 6,600 acres of Bastrop State Park, the park is showing signs of rebirth, which is good news to my dogs, Dylan and Sophie. (Photographer Credit: Mary Priddy)

And, the photo on the right is from Georgetown, Texas -- here's what local organizers had to say:

We lost thousands of "century trees" in Central Texas due to the record-breaking Drought of 2011 -- a worse drought is predicted this year. (Photo Credit: Bonnie Stump)
 

they picked up trash that washed down the rivers during recent floods. 

In central Japan, we're having hotter summers, colder winters and more
unpredictable and severe weather in between. This spring sudden
downpours damaged crops, and washed garbage down river (which we did our
best to pick up). This particular "dot" we labeled. It was nothing to
the freak tornado that devastated part of Tsukuba, the hail storms
(marbles and golf balls), and the killer lightening storms that plowed through three prefectures just afterwards,

Here's the note they sent: With the rising cost of rice due to increase rain, in the future, many of these

people may have to forgo traditional lunches of duboki and kimbap!

 

organized by the local group Jatonet

It came with this caption: Here, it is in a village of Gatumba in a country of east Africa which is called Burundi. In this photo, we are in the presence of a young lady showing with the finger there where was her house before being taken by the violent rain. Now you see it yourself, there is only a swamp of water....

 

We told everyone at the company to come to work on a bike and then we drove
around in circles around our office building at lunch time wearing KPMG
vivesostenible T-shirt that was especially designed for the event. We also
gave lectures to over 50 employees about climate change and sustainablity
and how everything is connected!

 

"We're up to our necks in it, so let's get to work!"

 

our weird new weather is leading to off-the-charts pollen counts and allergy explosions

 

The learners at West Park Special School depict the death of many of our
indigenous trees because of the drought they are experiencing in the area.

 

It came with this message: The dot is a response to the significant changes of weather in the region, Guangdong Province (whose capital city is Guangzhou). Extremeweather of excessive raining is no longer rare to people living here. Especially since this month, many villages and towns in the Province were flooded, causing at least 5 death.

Young people in China are ready to spread the message to even more
regions with the cooperation of 350.org!

spent the day educating the community about climate