Before the UN Climate Talks in Lima, the New York Times told us that “at stake now is the difference between a newly unpleasant world and an uninhabitable one.” But in Lima, the world's governments chose the latter, offering the world not solutions but rather a roadmap to global burning.
Are we really just going to sit by and watch until most species on earth—including our own—go extinct? Or are we going to turn up the heat on our tone-deaf leaders in every way that we can, until they finally realize they have to stand up to the fossil fuel companies, and stop the carbon madness?
Beginning in Janurary, we're inviting the entire People's Climate March network to join us for an ongoing organizing campaign on the Action Switchbaord so we can keep the pressure building. You're invited! Please join us! The Action Switchboard is a new organizing tool designed specifically to help movements continue building momentum in between the big moments. We'll be using it to stay connected as a network and keep doing actions together all year long!
Join us by entering your name and email address into the form on this page, and we'll invite you to calls and actions as we get started!
How will history remember the People’s Climate March?
In September, we all answered the rallying cry and came out for the People’s Climate March. It was the largest demonstrations for climate justice the world has ever seen. With 2000 demonstrations in 162 countries, the People’s Climate March (PCM) brought millions of people into the streets. It was incredible! It was inspiring!
But was it enough? What will history ultimately say about the People’s Climate March?
History will certainly remember the march itself, but what about the impact afterwards? Will the march have been a one-time event that got a big media splash and raised awareness of climate change issues—only to fade into memory as we all slip back into the status quo? Or will it have been the game-changing, catalytic event that sparked a new level of climate action all over the world, putting continual pressure on governments and corporations so that they finally started making the right decisions affecting our planet?
Obviously, we’re hoping for the latter outcome…. and we want to help make it happen. We know you do too.
Here’s the plan:
We are the Yes Men. You may have heard of us; we’re pretty well known for our outrageous satirical interventions at business events, on the internet, on television, and in the streets.
Over the years, literally thousands of activists have asked us to help them get more attention for their campaigns. We get way more requests for help than we can possibly handle! So, we recently released the Action Switchboard, an online platform that helps anyone at all pull off creative actions to launch continual actions for building movements. Not only that, but we also just premiered our third movie, The Yes Men Are Revolting, which we specifically crafted to inspire people to get out into the streets, take matters into their own hands, and take real action around climate change.
Of course we didn’t know that the climate movement would be at this critical crossroads just as we were releasing these new tools for action, but since it is, we need to use everything that we’ve been working on for the past few years to help make sure that the PCM is remembered as the moment that truly did change everything... the moment that turned things around, and—who knows—even saved the world!
Join us! We need you!
How’s this going to work?
- The Action Switchboard is a new tool that helps activists brainstorm ideas, build a team, and get the resources you need to pull them off. Not only that, but if you need someone with a particular skill (videographer? actor? people willing to be arrested?) - then we will help you find the right person from our database of activists who are standing by to help!
- We’ve partnered with network organizers from the People’s Climate March, who can help develop and support your actions.
- Over the next 6 months, we will be hosting ongoing conference calls and in-person brainstorms so you can come up with actions and keep your network strong and working together. We will help you stay connected and informed by sharing news from all of your actions with everyone who joins this project.
- As our new film, The Yes Men Are Revolting, is screened across the world, it will bring new climate activists into our movement. By continuing to stay active and engaged now, those newly inspired activists will discover a thriving network to help shepherd them into participating in actions. This could be great way to build our movement.
- We are also exploring ways that you can screen the film yourself, in your own communities, to get the conversation started about climate activism. You might do this as a fundraiser for your projects, or use it to start local climate action groups to plan actions in your community.
Honestly, this is all a no-brainer. We have to do this. We just released these tools that support a network to build ongoing actions together, and it just so happens that it is ready just in time for this huge network that just formed from the PCM. Will you join us so we can keep building pressure, reject their roadmap to global burning, and just maybe turn things around?
Ways to help now:
Sign up for updates at http://actionswitchboard.net/climateaction
Share this page with your networks on social media
Follow @ASdotnet and the Action Switchboard Facebook page
If you can, make a financial contribution to help us pull this off
Thanks for being amazing,
Mike and Andy
