May Boeve, Executive Director of 350.org, has “An Annual Check-Up for the Climate Movement” with the summary: “After a year of energy shocks, natural disasters, and calls for new investments in hydrocarbons, efforts to reduce our fossil-fuel dependency have gained greater urgency. While the world made some additional progress in 2022 to address climate change and protect nature, much remains to be done to overcome entrenched interests.”
Author: Milan
In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford.
Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here.
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Boeve emphasizes re-localising as a solution:
“Outside of UN conferences and corporate boardrooms, a quiet revolution is gathering speed. Those demanding more financing for locally owned renewable-energy systems are piercing through the longstanding barriers and refusing to be marginalized. They are building a new consensus, and making clear that matters of climate justice are non-negotiable.
I consider this quiet revolution to be one of the most exciting things that has happened over the past decade. The cyclical interplay of progress and retrogression is an enduring feature of policymaking – and of nature itself. The inevitable slumps must be met not with despair but with hope for the next upswing. While the 2022 energy crisis created a new pretext for those advocating greater investment in fossil fuels, such investments are rapidly becoming financial losers, because renewables are becoming cheaper than fossil fuels.
Around the world, communities, towns, cities, and regions are experimenting with creative climate solutions. We must identify the ones that work, mobilize support for them, and scale them up. That is how we will launch the decisive next phase of the decades-long fight against climate change and environmental destruction.”
Is that plausible?
A wave of unionization efforts has swept the non-profit sector as part of a renewed national enthusiasm for unionization. Shortly into the Covid-19 pandemic, workers at 350.org, Sunrise Movement, the National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Greenpeace USA, the Public Interest Network and the Center for Biological Diversity unionized.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/02/us-environmental-groups-unionization
At 350.org, the union claims that financial mismanagement led to mass layoffs and disproportionate workloads for Black and other workers of color, as POLITICO reported in February. Staffers described a hollowed out, rudderless organization far removed from its halcyon days as the movement’s logistical masterminds.
350.org’s struggles have continued since February. Its U.S. program staff stands at five people – two of which are managers – down from 9 in February and 50 in 2019. Some staff contend 350.org has relied on non-union contractors and volunteers amid a contentious union contract bargaining period.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/19/big-green-justice-environment-00040148