Over 400 climate groups nationwide have endorsed The OFF Fossil Fuels Act, the most aggressive environmental legislation in history. The goal is to outlaw fossil fuels 100% by 2035 and the push is on to collect Congressional co-sponsors nationwide.
The expert grassroots organizing behind the bill is being led by Food & Water Watch (F&WW). The approach is to get volunteers to rise up in each of the 435 Congressional districts to demand support for The OFF Act from their Representatives. There is a Slack group, activist toolkits and group calls to join. Everything you need to be a climate activist is available online and F&WW staff is there to help you.
This new bill follows a similar bill by Senators Merkley and Sanders, The 100 x 50 Act, also geared to mandate 100% clean energy and fast. These bills are turning the strategic tide of the climate movement. No longer will we wait for Congress to lead. Civil society is driving the charge.
The goal: to topple the multi-trillion dollar oil industry criminals destroying our planet for profit while bribing our government. This is the showdown of all of time. That moment human civilization will look back on for centuries to come, and ask: what did you do in 2017, 2018, 2020 to stop global warming from oil pollution?
The timeline for action is five short years, at which point we reach the carbon emissions level that sends us past 1.5 degrees warming, after which we enter the danger zone of 18 tipping points of no return. This is where dominos start to fall and our atmosphere and weather will collapse around us like a raging inferno.
We have the technology now to prevent this. But there is no known way to intervene once the series of events unfold creating such extreme weather that today's horrible tragedies will be welcomed back as the good times.
There are also several other climate strategies in motion, important because they have sustained passion behind them, and because they are the frontline, in the streets, questioning shareholders, and blocking pipelines.
The new Pipeline Resistance map is a website created by 350.org, where activists can list their organizing groups if you are working actively to stop pipelines in your area. Creating websites like these gathers all these actions into a more coherent picture. It gives the vast, yet decentralized climate "movement" some definition.
Another major effort is divestment from financing fossil fuels projects. These campaigns are aimed at city pension funds, big banks, college campuses, and even within major religions like the Catholic Church. There's momentum here and good progress, impacting the source of funds for dirty energy, discouraging investors.
There are various other grassroots organizing efforts underway such as Our Climate, with over 72,000 members, building a political lobbying army. Greenpeace held summer trainings. Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club and others are hosting grassroots trainings and strategy meetings. And new focus is growing on making climate a voting issue in 2018/20 by building an army of youth activists.
All these fights are critical. But the macro fight that encompasses them all is clearly the new federal legislative push coming from the top and the grassroots - The OFF Act.
And this is a great fit to the strategic leadership on the left focused on solutions to key issues like The LGBT Equality Act, also filed by Senator Merkley after a grassroots push which I personally led. And The Medicare for All Act spearheaded by Senator Sanders, giving that energy a voice and focus.
Activists pursue their own passion and groups their own strategy. But now it is vital that everyone also embrace the big solutions with an actual chance of stopping global warming before tipping points take us into disaster scenarios.
The OFF Act, filed by Representative Gabbard of Hawaii, has real mojo behind it as hundreds of organizations endorse this unifying demand capable of inspiring a mass climate revolution. Now it's time for state and local activists to pick up this crusade, make it their own, and force congress to act.
Whatever else you are working on, please add The OFF Act to your coalition plans. The votes for this - the votes to save our planet - are located in each of the 435 Congressional Districts. One is near you. Go get them.
It's now or never. We need a million climate warriors. Join in now before it's too late.