Take Part in Global Divestment Mobilization Week May 5-13 via @GoFossilFree @350

During the height of the Keystone XL fight in 2012, we sat in a theater in Washington, DC, along with hundreds of other climate activists and concerned citizens, and heard 350.org founder Bill McKibben talk about climate action via divestment. Back then, the divestment movement was just getting started and within a year, there were student-led divestment efforts happening on college campuses across the country and around the world. Since then, the divestment mobilization has become a core strategy of the climate movement.

With the national spotlight on science and climate change, 350.org has organized a week-long, Global Divestment Mobilization week May 5-13, on the heels of the People’s Climate March. The last Global Divestment Day was two years ago, so, it’s more than time - and perhaps the perfect time - to reinvigorate a movement that has taken off and grown substantially over recent years.

As you’ve heard on this show and everywhere by now, renewable energy is becoming more efficient and cost effective every year, but to have a chance at that future we have to keep fossil fuels in the ground….and we don’t have time to wait for the market to fix things. We need to make change happen now and money seems to be the only thing that talks in our corrupt, capitalist society.

On their website, the Divestment Week organizers wrote, “Now it’s time to highlight the impacts of fossil fuels on our planet and to demand action that is rooted in the moral argument that investing in fossil fuels is not only a financial risk, but also risking the lives of human beings.”

During Global Divestment Mobilization Week, actions will take place around the globe to demand the following moral responses from governments, universities, religious organizations, cultural institutions, individuals, and others:

Immediate freeze of any new investments in fossil fuel companies.
Divestment from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within 5 years.
Cutting of sponsorship ties with fossil fuel companies

Visit GlobalDivestmentMobilisation.org to learn more and to find actions near you. If there isn’t an action in your area, the site offers ideas and resources to organize one of your own. You can also follow the movement @GoFossilFree on Twitter and by checking out and using the official global hashtag #FossilFree.

So, if saving the planet before it’s too late is important to you, be sure to hit the share buttons to spread the word about Taking Part in the Global Divestment Mobilization Week May 5-13 via social media so that others in your network can spread the word too.

This interactive timeline looks at some of the key milestones of the global divestment movement: https://t.co/zfkoFa2d7N #FossilFree pic.twitter.com/hzosRdBTQP
— 350 dot org (@350) April 24, 2017