The 350 in the name stands for 350 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO2),[3] which has been identified as a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point.[4][failed verification][5] By the end of 2007, the year 350.org was founded, atmospheric CO2 had already exceeded this threshold, reaching 383ppm CO2;[5] as of July 2022, the concentration had reached 421ppm CO2, a level 50% higher than pre-industrial levels.[6]
Through online campaigns, grassroots organizing, mass public actions, and collaboration with an extensive network of partner groups and organizations, 350.org mobilized thousands of volunteer organizers in over 188 countries.[7] It was one of the many organizers of the September 2019 Global Climate Strike, which evolved from the Fridays for Future movement.
Campaigns
350.org runs a variety of campaigns, from the local to the global scale.
350.org explains that the reasoning behind this campaign is simple: "If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage."[9] 350.org states their demand as the following "We want institutions to immediately freeze any new investment in fossil fuel companies and divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil-fuel public equities and corporate bonds."
The campaign has grown from colleges and universities around the United States to now include other kinds of public and private institutions, such as the City of New York, major Japanese banks, development banks, religious institutions, and more. Campaigns for divestment are active and growing around the world. From 2013 to 2020, Australian members built a network of local groups across the country advocating for institutions to divest.[10]
Keystone XL pipeline
350.org named the Keystone XL pipeline as a critical issue and turning point for the environmental movement, as well as for then-President Barack Obama's legacy. NASA climatologist James Hansen labeled the Keystone XL pipeline as "game over" for the planet and called the amount of carbon stored in Canadian bitumen sands a "fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet".[11]
350.org cited oil spills along the proposed pipeline route, which would pass near Texas' Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to more than 12million people, as one important reason to reject the pipeline. They argued that it could also pose a danger to the Ogallala Aquifer, the largest aquifer in western North America that supplies drinking water and irrigation to millions of people and agricultural businesses.[12]
350.org has opposed the economic argument that has been made by proponents of the pipeline, arguing that Keystone XL would create only a few thousand temporary jobs during construction. The State Department estimated that ultimately the pipeline will create 35 permanent jobs.[13] Additionally, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has said that the Keystone XL pipeline will increase gas prices instead of lowering them as oil industry proponents claimed. The NRDC's study also rebutted the claim that the pipeline will lead to energy independence because the pipeline would carry tar sands from Canada to Texas for export to the global market.[14]
Partly due to efforts from 350.org and other organizations, President Obama officially rejected the building of Keystone XL on November 6, 2015.[15] This marked the end of a seven-year review of the pipeline. Speaking on the decision, Bill McKibben said, "President Obama is the first world leader to reject a project because of its effect on the climate. That gives him new stature as an environmental leader, and it eloquently confirms the five years and millions of hours of work that people of every kind put into this fight."[15]
On January 24, 2017, President Donald Trump took action intended to permit the pipeline's completion, whereupon TC Energy suspended their NAFTA Chapter 11 action.[16]
On January 18, 2018, TransCanada Pipelines (now TC PipeLines) announced they had secured commitments from oil companies to ship 500,000 barrels (79,000m3) of dilbit per day for 20 years, meeting the threshold to make the project economically viable.[17]
On January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden revoked the permit for the pipeline on his first day in office.[18] On June 9, 2021, the project was abandoned by TC Energy.[19][20] In its coverage of the abandonment, The Wall Street Journal highlighted the role of 350.org in the project's failure.[19]
Mountain Valley pipeline
On January 31, 2024, 350.org and international multifaith organization GreenFaith gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina, to oppose the Mountain Valley Pipeline which would carry gasoline and methane "more than 300 miles (480km) from West Virginia to Southern Virginia", as well as the pipeline's 31-mile (50km) Southgate Extension.[21]
Local campaigns in jurisdictions around the world have passed laws limiting or banning fossil fuel production. These include 410 municipal bans for frackingin Brazil and two state bans: Santa Catarina and Paraná.
International Day of Climate Action
Thousands of Cyclists in Melbourne for the 350 Climate Protest, October 24, 2009International Day of Climate Action. Taganrog, Rostov Region, Russia. October 24, 2009
An "International Day of Climate Action" on October 24, 2009, was organized by 350.org to influence the delegates going to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in December 2009 (COP15).[22][23] This was the first global campaign ever organized around a scientific data point.[24] The actions organized by 350.org included gigantic depictions of the number "350",[25][26] walks,[27][28] marches, rallies, teach-ins, bike rides, sing-a-thons, carbon-free dinners, retrofitting houses to save energy,[29]tree plantings,[30] mass dives at the Great Barrier Reef, solar-cooked bake-outs, church bell ringings, underwater cabinet meetings (Maldives),[31][32] and armband distributions to athletes.[33][34][35] The group reported that they organized the world's "most widespread day of political action" on that Saturday, reporting 5,245 actions in 181 countries.[36][37][38][39][40][41]
As a follow-up to 2009's International Day of Climate Action, 350.org and the 10:10 Climate Campaign joined forces to help coordinate another global day of action, which occurred on October 10, 2010. The 2010 campaign was focused on concrete actions that can be taken locally to help combat climate change. Actions from tree-plantings to solar panel installations to huge electricity service-provider switching parties occurred in almost every country around the world.[42][43][44]
Connect the dots
The organization's efforts continued into 2012 with a planned May 5 worldwide series of rallies under the slogan "Connect the Dots" to draw attention to the links between climate change and extreme weather.[45][46] Per the 350.org website, the day is called "Climate Impacts Day".[47][48]
Global Power Shift
Phase 1 of Global Power Shift was a convergence in Istanbul, Turkey, in June 2013 of about five-hundred climate organizers from 135 countries. Stated objectives include sharing and developing skills to organize movements, building upon existing plans to organize in-country Power Shift events after the kickoff event in Turkey, building political alignment and a clear theory of change, sharing experiences from different countries, formulating strategies to overcome challenges, and building relationships to strengthen regional and international cooperation and collaboration.[49] Phase 2 of Global Power Shift involves the organizers who were in Turkey in June 2013 to bring home what they learned to organize summits, events, and mobilizations.
Summer Heat
350.org launched the Summer Heat campaign in the summer of 2013, a wave of mass mobilizations across the USA. Summer Heat actions took place at eleven locations: Richmond, California; Vancouver, Washington; Green River, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Houston, Texas; St. Ignace, Michigan; Warren, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; Camp David, Maryland; Somerset, Massachusetts; and Sebago Lake, Maine. Participants included grassroots organizers, labor unions, farmers, ranchers, environmental justice groups, and others. The slogan that was used for the Summer Heat campaign was As The Temperature Rises, So Do We.[50]
People's Climate March
350.org helped organize the People's Climate March, which took place on September 21, 2014. 2,000 events took place around the world.[51][52]
350.org was one of the leading organizers of the Global Climate Strike, September 20–27, 2019. Strike actions were planned in more than 150 countries. Worn by a broad coalition of NGOs, unions, and social movements, the strikes were inspired by the school strikes of the Fridays for Future movement. Also supported is the digital climate strike, which calls for a shutdown or 'go green' of websites with redirection to coverage of the physical mobilizations.
The aim of the Global Climate Strike was to draw attention to the emergency climate crisis and to create pressure on politics, the media and the fossil fuel industry. The strikes were intended as a prelude to a permanent mass mobilization.
Over 7.6million people across 185 countries participated in the mass mobilization event, making the Global Climate Strike the largest climate mobilization in history.[53]
Other activities
Apart from special events, 350.org organizes actions on an ongoing basis to promote its message. These activities include tree plantings (350 trees in each instance) for biosequestration,[54][55][56][57][58][59] promoting the term "350",[60][61][62][63][64] publishing adverts in major newspapers calling for the target level of carbon dioxide to be lowered to 350ppm,[65] conducting polls on the subject of climate change,[66][67] educating youth leaders,[68][69] lobbying governments on the issue of carbon targets,[70] and joining a campaign to establish a .ecotop-level domain or "tld".[71] In December 2009, the group petitioned the United States Environmental Protection Agency to set national limits for greenhouse gases using the Clean Air Act, asking the agency to cap atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide at 350 parts per million.[72] The organization created and distributed a time-lapse video showing the recent retreat of Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska, graphically depicting the impacts of warming climates.[73]
Do The Math movie
The Do The Math movie is a 42-minute documentary film about the rising movement to change the terrifying math of the climate crisis and challenge the fossil fuel industry. The math revolves around these three numbers: to stay below 2 degrees Celsius of global warming we can emit only 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide versus the 2,795 gigatons held in proven reserves by fossil fuel corporations. This warming rise was agreed to in the 2009 Copenhagen Summit as a limit. NASA scientist James Hansen says "2 degrees of warming is actually a prescription for long-term disaster."[74]
"Rise: From One Island to Another" poem
"Rise: From One Island to Another" is a poem and video project that showcases the impacts of sea level rise and the ways the climate crisis spans across national borders. The poem is written by two islanders, Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner from the Marshall Islands and Aka Niviâna from Greenland. Through their poetry, they draw connections between their realities of melting glaciers and rising sea levels.[75]
350.org founder Bill McKibben writes that "[climate change] science is uncontroversial. But science alone can't make change, because it appeals only to the hemisphere of the brain that values logic and reason. We're also creatures of emotion, intuition, spark – which is perhaps why we should mount more poetry expeditions, put more musicians on dying reefs, make sure that novelists can feel the licking heat of wildfire."[76]
"Rise" was created in 2018. The "Rise" film project team included photographer and photojournalist Dan Lin, freelance filmmaker Nick Stone, visual storyteller Rob Lau, and filmmaker Oz Go.
350.org was founded by American environmentalist Bill McKibben and a group of students from Middlebury College in Vermont. Their 2007 "Step It Up" campaign involved 1,400 demonstrations at famous sites across the United States. McKibben credits these activities with making Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama change their energy policies during the 2008 United States presidential campaign. Starting in 2008, 350.org built upon the "Step It Up" campaign and made it into a global organization.
McKibben is an American environmentalist and writer who wrote one of the first books on global warming for the general public, and frequently writes about climate change, alternative energy, and the need for more localized economies. As of 2022, McKibben was a senior advisor to 350.org and May Boeve is the Executive Director.
Rajendra Pachauri, the UN's "top climate scientist" and leader of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has come out, as have others, in favor of reducing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to 350ppm.[77][78][79] McKibben called news of Pachauri's embrace of the 350ppm target "amazing".[80] Some media have indicated that Pachauri's endorsement of the 350ppm target was a victory for 350.org's activism.[81][82]
The organization had a lift in prominence after McKibben appeared on The Colbert Report television show on August 17, 2009.[83][84][85] McKibben promotes the organization on speaking tours and by writing articles about it for many major newspapers and media, such as the Los Angeles Times[86] and The Guardian.[87] In 2012, the organization was presented with the Katerva Award for Behavioural Change.[88]
Science of 350
NASA climate scientist James Hansen contended that any atmospheric concentration of CO2 above 350 parts per million (ppm) was unsafe. Hansen opined in 2009 that "if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 400ppm to at most 350ppm, but likely less than that." Hansen has noted that nuclear energy is a viable solution to lower CO2 in the atmosphere, at odds with 350.org.[89] Carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, rose by 2.6ppm to 396ppm in 2013 from the previous year (annual global averages).[90] In May 2013, two independent teams of scientists measuring CO2 near the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaii recorded that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceeded 400ppm, probably for the first time in more than 3 million years of Earth history.[91] It crossed 415ppm in May 2019 and the amount continues to rise.[92]
2°C (3.6°F) was agreed upon during the 2009 Copenhagen Accord as a limit for global temperature rise. In the 2015 Paris Agreement, 1.5°C of warming was introduced as a limit, reflecting the significant difference in impacts between 2°C and 1.5°C, especially for climate-vulnerable areas. This was reaffirmed in the 2018 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, where the world's leading scientists urged action to limit warming to 1.5°C. In order to stay below a 2°C increase, scientists have estimated that humans can pour roughly 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Fossil-fuel companies have about 2,795 gigatons of carbon already contained in their proven coal and oil and gas reserves, and is the amount of fossil fuels they are currently planning to burn. 2,795 gigatons is five times higher than the limit of 565 gigatons that would keep Earth under a global temperature increase of 2°C,[93] which is already unsafe according to the latest science.
The scientific community has been investigating the causes of climate change for decades. After thousands of studies, it came to a consensus, where it is "unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land since pre-industrial times." This consensus is supported by around 200 scientific organizations worldwide, The dominant role in this climate change has been played by the direct emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. Indirect CO2 emissions from land use change, and the emissions of methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases play major supporting roles.
Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CO2. It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature and at normally-encountered concentrations it is odorless. As the source of carbon in the carbon cycle, atmospheric CO2 is the primary carbon source for life on Earth. In the air, carbon dioxide is transparent to visible light but absorbs infrared radiation, acting as a greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide is soluble in water and is found in groundwater, lakes, ice caps, and seawater.
William Ernest McKibben is an American environmentalist, author, and journalist who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and leader of the climate campaign group 350.org. He has authored a dozen books about the environment, including his first, The End of Nature (1989), about climate change, and Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? (2019), about the state of the environmental challenges facing humanity and future prospects.
James Edward Hansen is an American adjunct professor directing the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is best known for his research in climatology, his 1988 Congressional testimony on climate change that helped raise broad awareness of global warming, and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous climate change. In recent years, he has become a climate activist to mitigate the effects of global warming, on a few occasions leading to his arrest.
Power Shift is an annual youth summit which has been held in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Other Power Shift Conferences are also being organised by members of the International Youth Climate Movement including Africa, Japan and India. The focus of the events is on climate change policy.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a process by which carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial installations is separated before it is released into the atmosphere, then transported to a long-term storage location. The CO2 is captured from a large point source, such as a natural gas processing plant and is typically stored in a deep geological formation. Around 80% of the CO2 captured annually is used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), a process by which CO2 is injected into partially-depleted oil reservoirs in order to extract more oil and then is largely left underground. Since EOR utilizes the CO2 in addition to storing it, CCS is also known as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS).
The Virgin Earth Challenge was a competition offering a $25 million prize for whoever could demonstrate a commercially viable design which results in the permanent removal of greenhouse gases out of the Earth's atmosphere to contribute materially in global warming avoidance. The prize was conceived by Richard Branson, and was announced in London on 9 February 2007 by Branson and former US Vice President Al Gore.
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide, from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, is one of the most important factors in causing climate change. The largest emitters are China followed by the United States. The United States has higher emissions per capita. The main producers fueling the emissions globally are large oil and gas companies. Emissions from human activities have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide by about 50% over pre-industrial levels. The growing levels of emissions have varied, but have been consistent among all greenhouse gases. Emissions in the 2010s averaged 56 billion tons a year, higher than any decade before. Total cumulative emissions from 1870 to 2022 were 703 GtC, of which 484±20 GtC from fossil fuels and industry, and 219±60 GtC from land use change. Land-use change, such as deforestation, caused about 31% of cumulative emissions over 1870–2022, coal 32%, oil 24%, and gas 10%.
In Earth's atmosphere, carbon dioxide is a trace gas that plays an integral part in the greenhouse effect, carbon cycle, photosynthesis and oceanic carbon cycle. It is one of three main greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of Earth. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reach 427 ppm (0.04%) in 2024. This is an increase of 50% since the start of the Industrial Revolution, up from 280 ppm during the 10,000 years prior to the mid-18th century. The increase is due to human activity.
The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and, as of March 2020, the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Texas, and also to oil tank farms and an oil pipeline distribution center in Cushing, Oklahoma.
Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. What distinguishes them from other gases is that they absorb the wavelengths of radiation that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. The Earth is warmed by sunlight, causing its surface to radiate heat, which is then mostly absorbed by greenhouse gases. Without greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the average temperature of Earth's surface would be about −18 °C (0 °F), rather than the present average of 15 °C (59 °F).
A climate change scenario is a hypothetical future based on a "set of key driving forces". Scenarios explore the long-term effectiveness of mitigation and adaptation. Scenarios help to understand what the future may hold. They can show which decisions will have the most meaningful effects on mitigation and adaptation.
The 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference was the 18th yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 8th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The conference took place from Monday 26 November to Saturday 8 December 2012, at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha.
The Forward on Climate rally was held at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on February 17, 2013. The goal of the demonstration was to spur President Barack Obama and Congress to take more action to address global warming. Opposition to the proposed expansion of the Keystone XL Pipeline, that was still pending at the time, was a particular focus of the rally.
The carbon bubble is a hypothesized bubble in the valuation of companies dependent on fossil-fuel-based energy production, resulting from future decreases in value of fossil fuel reserves as they become unusable in order to meet carbon budgets and recognition of negative externalities of carbon fuels which are not yet taken into account in a company's stock market valuation.
CO2 is Green is a non-profit organization supporting public policy on environmental issues that rejects the science of climate change. A main focus of the organization are federal proposals that may “interfere with natures dependence on carbon dioxide.” CO2 is Green does not view carbon dioxide as a pollutant and advocates for federal law and regulations to support this thinking.
Carbon Tracker is a London-based not-for-profit think tank researching the impact of climate change on financial markets.
350 Bay Area is a San Francisco Bay Area regional grassroots climate activism 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. 350 Bay Area is inspired by 350.org, but has no legal connection. 350 Bay Area is associated with several local 350 groups, including 350 San Francisco, 350 East Bay, 350 Contra Costa, 350Marin, 350 Sonoma, Napa Climate NOW! and 350 Silicon Valley. The organization works to eliminate carbon pollution and achieve clean energy and environmental justice.
May Boeve is an American environmental activist. She is a founder and executive director of 350.org, a climate NGO. The Guardian called her "the new face of the climate change movement."
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