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Friend,
Starting today, a global wave of peaceful, direct actions lasting for 12 days will take place across six continents targeting the world’s most dangerous fossil fuel projects, under the banner of Break Free.1
Last year was the hottest ever recorded, and the impacts are already being felt by communities from South Florida to the coast of Oregon.2 From rising sea levels to extreme storms, the need to act on climate change has never been more urgent. But this could also be the perfect moment to act because fossil fuel companies around the world are reeling from low prices, and the impact of many world governments finally waking up and beginning to act on climate. Exxon is under investigation, coal companies are going out of business, and coal executives are going to jail.3
This is the moment to stand up, act out, and demand that world leaders take action to keep fossil fuels in the ground. World leaders signed the Paris climate accords on Earth Day promising to take action to limit global warming between 1.5-2C.4 But so far, that promise is all talk, no action. To make it real, we need all new fossil fuel projects to be shelved and existing infrastructure needs to be replaced immediately with renewable energy. We simply have to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground and accelerate the transition to 100 percent renewable energy.
All over the world, our allies and neighbors are standing up and risking everything to demand bold action. In many places over the next two weeks, we'll be intensifying the call to keep it in the ground through peaceful, civil disobedience. It will be big, it will be powerful, and it will make history. The only question is what side will you be standing on -- starting right now.
Drew and the Keep It In the Ground crew at Environmental Action
1 - Bill McKibben, The time has come to turn up the heat on those who are wrecking planet Earth, The Guardian, May 3, 2016
2 - Roz Pidcock, 2015 Hottest Year Ever Recorded … Until 2016, UN Weather Agency Reports, Carbon Brief, November 25, 2015
3 - Jake Pearson, US Virgin Islands, Massachusetts Launch Probes Into Exxon, The associated Press, March 29, 2016
- Chico Harlan, The big bust in the oil fields, The Washington Post, March 25, 2016
- Tim Loh, Coal's ‘Last Man Standing’ Dragged to the Brink of Bankruptcy, Bloomberg, March 16, 2016
- Tom Randall, Wind and Solar Are Crushing Fossil Fuels, Bloomberg, April 6, 2016
4 - John D. Sutter, What's next for the Paris Agreement?, CNN, April 22, 2016
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