350.org

350.org
founding	2008
founder	Bill McKibben
Seat	Oakland , California , USA
main emphasis	Climate protection
method	Civil disobedience , lobbying , non-violent action
Action space	worldwide
sales	$ 16,810,730 (2017)
Website	350.org

350.org is an international climate protection organization founded by the US author and environmental activist Bill McKibben . 350.org aims to build a global grassroots movement for climate protection. In addition to raising awareness of man-made global warming and the consequences of climate change, the organization is also concerned with scientifically refuting the arguments of climate change deniers.

The organization, founded in 2008, emerged from the 2007 climate protection campaign “Step It Up”. It borrows its name from a study published in 2008 by NASA climate researcher James Hansen , which says that the level of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere must not exceed 350 parts per million (ppm) if the 2-degree target is reached and a global tilt Climate system with irreversible consequences is to be prevented. Since the current value of around 400 ppm is already well above the limit mentioned by Hansen, 350.org calls for an immediate and drastic reduction in CO ₂ emissions, the retention of 80 percent of all global fossil fuel reserves in the soil and the binding of CO ₂ already in the atmosphere by means of geo-engineering .

In September 2014 the organization, together with its founder Bill McKibben, was awarded the Right Livelihood Award , the so-called Alternative Nobel Prize, “for successfully mobilizing a growing civil society movement for far-reaching measures against climate change in the United States and worldwide”.

Initiatives

350.org founder Bill McKibben during the Forward on Climate demonstration in Washington, DC , USA 2013

Keystone XL pipeline

The organization protests against the Keystone XL pipeline , which is supposed to transport oil sands from Alberta, Canada, across the United States of America to the Gulf of Mexico. 350.org saw the prevention of the pipeline project as a critical point, but also as an opportunity for the environmental movement in the USA and for the Obama administration. NASA climatologist James Hansen called the approval of the pipeline a "game over" for the earth's climate due to the enormous CO ₂ emissions associated with tar sand mining.

Fossil fuel divestment

The global disinvestment campaign Fossil-free calls on public institutions and organizations such as universities, communities, churches or pension funds to stop investing money in companies in the fossil fuel sector. Funds already invested should also be withdrawn from such companies and invested in sustainable companies.

It is also about public investment from the so-called carbon bubble (also Carbon Bubble ) withdraw to the impending loss of the money the bursting of this bubble to prevent.

However, the group itself says that the economic impact of the campaign on the companies concerned is not the focus. Rather, it is about bringing the problem of the carbon bubble into public awareness and depriving the fossil fuel industry of its moral legitimation. In Germany, the group has so far been active in Münster, Konstanz and Berlin. In particular, this involves loans from the state-owned KfW bank for the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

In Berlin in 2016, all parliamentary groups in the House of Representatives decided to deduct the state's own supply reserves from the coal, oil and natural gas industries. The tax authorities commissioned an alternative investment strategy, which also lists other exclusion criteria such as war weapons and nuclear power. This investment strategy should also be open to pension funds and other federal states.

Do The Math: The Movie

Do The Math - The film is a 42-minute documentary about the growing climate protection movement. Under the motto “Do the math”, the film is intended to encourage viewers to recalculate the most important figures of the 350.org movement, to relate them and to shape the future in such a way that the 2-degree goal is still achieved.

Global power shift

Phase 1 of the Global Power Shift was an international meeting of around 500 climate protectionists from 135 countries in June 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey. The main focus was on the exchange of knowledge and methods of campaign work as well as finding a common strategy. Phase 2 is planned to implement what has been learned in Turkey in order to organize further events in the respective countries of origin of the participants.

Global Climate Strike

350.org is one of the leading organizers of the global climate strike from September 20-27, 2019. Strike actions are planned in over 150 countries this week. The strikes are supported by a broad coalition of NGOs, trade unions and social movements and were inspired by the school strikes of the Fridays For Future movement. The Digital Climate Strike is also supported, which calls for a shutdown or go green of websites.

The Global Climate Strike is intended to draw attention to the emergency climate crisis and to generate pressure on politics, the media and the economy. The strikes are intended as a prelude to permanent mass mobilization.

Members

According to its own statement, the organization works with around 300 allied organizations from all over the world, including a. Greenpeace , Friends of the Earth , Rainforest Action Network, the Sierra Club or Avaaz . In addition, 350 people from public life support 350.org as so-called climate ambassadors, including the ex-president of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed , Kumi Naidoo , the director of Greenpeace International, Desmond Tutu , Bianca Jagger , David Suzuki , Vandana Shiva and the IPCC - Chairperson Rajendra Pachauri .