WATCH: This is an emergency -- let's act like it.

Did you see the message I sent last week about the Break Free mobilization coming up this May?

Every NASA report, every superstorm, and every unseasonable flood makes it clearer: this is truly a climate emergency. Let's act like it.

Excited to take action with you this May,

Matt

This May: Break Free From Fossil Fuels

Published on Mar 16, 2016

May 4-15, 2016: A global wave of mass actions will target the world’s most dangerous fossil fuel projects, in order to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground and accelerate the just transition to 100% renewable energy. #keepitintheground

Across the world, people are showing the courage to confront polluters where they are most powerful — from the halls of power to the wells and mines themselves.

#KEEPITINTHEGROUND

At the beginning of 2016, the fossil fuel industry faces an unprecedented existential crisis — from collapsing oil prices, a new global climate deal, and an ever-growing movement calling for change. 

We have never had a better chance in history to break free from fossil fuels and build a just transition to clean and renewable energy. Across the world, people are showing the courage to confront polluters where they are most powerful — from the halls of power to the wells and mines themselves.

This isn’t your typical fossil fuel protest. It’s a network of independently-organized actions to keep fossil fuels in the ground. It’s escalated, but more than just a handful of protest veterans. It’s a mass mobilization, but not just happening in one place at one time. It’s global and grassroots-driven.

Fighting climate change requires the courage to confront polluters where they think they are most powerful. For years, communities on the front lines have led that struggle, and this May we can join them.

The world is becoming dangerously hotter by the day. Through peaceful direct action across the globe we can demonstrate to those in power that people everywhere are prepared to resist the fossil fuel industry’s plans to wreck the planet. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. Let’s seize it.

Friends,

In 2016, the fossil fuel industry faces an existential crisis.

Every country in the world has now agreed to tackle the issue of climate change, historically low prices have sent the industry into a financial tailspin, and two consecutive years of record global temperatures have galvanized support for climate action. There has never been a better moment to confront the fossil fuel industry and break its hold on our economy.

This May, organizers on every continent are planning a global wave of mass actions to leverage this moment -- to break free from fossil fuels and spark a just transition to 100% renewable energy.

Along with partners around the world, we announced the Break Free 2016 mobilization as the Paris Climate Summit was wrapping up in December. Today, I’m proud to share the results of lots of hard work and planning: if you go to breakfree2016.org now, you can see all the details for many of the bold actions being planned around the world.

In the United States, the Break Free mobilization will be a series of actions from coast to coast to take on the industry and keep fossil fuels in the ground. 

Break Free isn’t like anything we’ve ever done before. It’s a network of independently-organized actions to keep fossil fuels in the ground. It’s escalated, but more than just a handful of protest veterans. It’s a mass mobilization, but not just happening in one place at one time. It’s global, but grassroots-driven.

In Albany, New York, a coalition of groups from across the region will take on an oil-by-rail terminal that pumps pollution into the homes of the city's poorest residents; in Colorado, activists will take a stand to say that it's time to keep all publicly-owned oil and gas underground; in Los Angeles, community members will call for a fracking ban -- and so much more.

Each of these actions will help escalate a critical fossil fuel fight that’s already underway. Around the country, communities impacted by fossil fuels have been fighting and winning local battles for months, years, and sometimes decades -- from Native peoples’ resistance to pipeline infrastructure in the Midwest, to the frontline-led battle to stop fracking in California’s Central Valley, to the kayak blockades that stopped Shell’s Arctic drilling rig in Seattle last year.

Now, we all have an opportunity to step up and join in.

Click here to see all the Break Free plans across the US, and join an action nearest you: usa.breakfree2016.org

By confronting the power of the fossil fuel industry, we can create space for something better to grow in its place -- clean energy, local solutions, and a just transition to a new kind of economy.

By coordinating our escalation across the planet this May, we can show the fossil fuel industry that they have no place left to run: the world is through with their pollution, their corruption, and their greed.

Together, we can make this a turning point.

Here we go,

Matt, for the 350.org team and all of our allies and partners across the country