Project Description:

350.org is an international campaign committed to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis. According to leading scientists, 350 parts per million (ppm) is the safe upper limit for Carbon Dioxide in our planet's atmosphere. We like to think that what ppm really stands for is "people-powered-movement" -- the kind that will get us back to the safe and sane climate future that 350ppm represents. Over the past two years we've hooked up our real world networks with our wired networks to catalyze and connect what's become a powerful and rapidly growing global movement. It started with a public invitation, a sort of online memo, for people all over the world to organize locally and join their own community for climate action. After we shared it with our original network, on a real grassroots budget, we got to work -- drumming up support every which way we knew how. We leveraged a diverse palette of social media tools to help tell the movement's story, grow the conversation (in 14 languages!), and spur offline action. In a way, this was an experiment as much as it was a campaign. Thanks to the great successes (and failures) of this particular experiment, we're committed to keep pushing things forward. We've spent the better part of the winter listening to our community, reflecting with each other and with partners on lessons learned, and are now really excited for a *few* new campaigns.

Project Goal:

* Achieve a fair, ambitious, and binding international climate treaty @ the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen -- one that was strong enough to get us on a path back to 350 ppm.

* Change the international political discourse around climate change to one that's grounded in what the science and justice demand.

* Demonstrate a global movement to a global audience, and allow that movement to fully realize itself in real-world action.

* Empower organizers to tackle climate change in their communities.

* Build a network of wired activists -- starting from scratch, our goal was to support & equip a massive, diverse, & engaged movement on popular social networks.

What Tools Did You Use:

Blogs, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, RS, Twitter, Other

What Happened?:

* The Copenhagen climate talks took place this past December, and our leaders failed to reach a fair, ambitious, or binding treaty. This was a major blow to the movement, and one we won't gloss over. Yet it was also a turning point for our collective cause -- we saw an incredible & beautiful global movement rise up & lay the groundwork for the great work ahead.

* We co-organized a number of climate action camps to train people around the world. Two Ethiopian sisters who attended one of our trainings went on to organize a 15,000-person march in Addis Ababa!

* On Oct 24th, those two sisters along with thousands of people organized over 5,200 creative demonstrations in 181 countries -- all calling for a 350, safe and just climate future. That's a global field network of more than 5,200 organizers and 400+ partner organizations, not even looking at our online support from 100s of 1000s more! There are now thousands of organizers on the local level who have built the community infrastructure for things like a city plan to go carbon neutral, building a city garden, and getting to work implementing the renewable energy revolution. We're constantly inspired by the over 25,000 organizer-submitted photographs through flickr, documenting the actions that keep taking place around the world. We hope you'll check them out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/

* The October 24th International Day of Climate Action was the #1 story on Google News; was featured on the homepages of the New York Times, Le Monde, BBC World, and the Washington Post; and was prominently covered by TV and media outlets around the world. CNN called it "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history."

* Over 100 countries now support the 350 ppm target! The number is now a benchmark for evaluating the progress of international climate agreements and a rallying cry for civil society and the nations most vulnerable to climate change (such as the Maldives and Tuvalu).

* With our allies in the Tck Tck Tck campaign, we were able to bring unprecedented pressure to bear on the UN Climate Conference delegates in Copenhagen. In solidarity with those facing the very real affects of climate change right now, we coordinated thousands of beautiful candlelight vigils with partners around the world. We used blogs, text message relays, email, Facebook & twitter to amplify our message and demonstrate support for the most vulnerable countries (check out the story of the first Twitter 'hashtag' to break into the UN climate negotiations: http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/making-tuvalu).

* Our Facebook community is now over 75,000 strong, with Twitter at over 14,000. The context and power behind those numbers mean a lot more than the numbers themselves, though. What really matters is what's happening on these networks everyday: the amazing conversations & support, wired solidarity, and way so many people find out about the campaign and then get engaged in the down and dirty of social change in their community.

Lessons Learned:

Lift up your leaders as much as you can: In 2010, we're really psyched to shine a bigger spotlight on our wired champions -- the ones who are sparking conversations, and inspiring their networks to action. These are the people who are driving the movement at the intersection of their community and the globally-connected changescape. Empower: Find just the right amount of tools & support to give your organizers what they need to organize for change in their community. One thing we really want to explore this year is how to effectively democratize our online activist toolset for our organizers (i.e. - giving each organizer the tools for a local email list, event registration, blog, social network beacons, local homepage, etc.) Twestival is a great inspiration! Open-Source: Keep looking at ways to let people make this campaign their own. This isn't a crisis that's going to be solved by one organization, or even a few dozen. When millions of people and their communities can find a way to hook into the movement and in a very real sense, lead it -- that's when we stand a fighting chance. Collaboration: Collaboration has been crucial to so much of the movement's successes so far. We're definitely looking forward to continuing to bridge the silos across nonprofit organizations, both with traditional environmental organizations and seemingly unlikely allies, like the faith community. Storytelling: Stories are how we relate to the world, they're among the most powerful ways to express ourselves and engage those that are close to us. Storytelling played a pivotal role within regional trainings we co-organized in building trust and love within communities. We're trying to think (openly) about the possibilities for decentralized digital storytelling -- what it looks like when we all share personal, moving stories to help grow the movement through our own social networks.

URLs:

350.org

350 Movement Video Recap -- http://www.350.org/about/blogs/video-recap-unbelievable-year

Social Media Powered Hope -- http://netsquared.org/blog/joesolomon/social-media-powered-hope

350 Global Day of Action: A New Bright Line for Digital Organizing -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-silberman/350-global-day-of-action_b_340229.html