350BK began in 2015, with a few women meeting in each other’s homes. People who had been active in organizing the massive 2014 NYC Climate March, and who wanted to be more consistently active on a local level to address the most challenging crisis of our time came together.
They all had the same feeling: The planet is hurtling towards the death and destruction that is inevitable if we don’t stop the crisis of climate change.
December 12, 2015
One day after 196 countries finished negotiating the historic 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, 350Brooklyn, 350NYC and 350New Jersey answered an international call to “Protect What You Love — Draw a Red Line.” And so we circled around the Statue of Liberty to represent the danger zone our warming planet had already entered.
Hundreds of people wearing red joined hands at the base of the statue to call for immediate action to protect our planet, our harbor, and ourselves from the threat of catastrophic climate change. A beacon for refugees, a symbol of freedom, the statue is, like all of us, vulnerable to rising seas and accelerating winds.
From New York City to Albany to Washington, we meet with officials who represent Brooklyn to urge them to fight for genuine reform of our energy systems accompanied by protection for low-income people and environmental justice communities. We rally, we write, we post–we use all the tools in the activist tool box to transform our elected officials into climate champions.
350BK has worked with numerous coalitions, including NY Renews, which we joined in 2016 to pass aggressive, state-wide climate legislation. Our participation involved years of trips to Albany, and we celebrated with groups all over New York State when it became law in 2019. This Climate and Community Protection Act is widely considered one of the most progressive national commitments to climate action in the nation.
The power of the people can’t be stopped!
350BK has hosted numerous speakers and events to add depth and complexity to our awareness of the climate crisis and the climate movement.
At this event held at Brooklyn’s BRIC Media Center, Jabari Brisport moderated a panel of Guardian journalist Oliver Millman, Earther Journalist Yessenia Funes, 350.org Media Director Lindsay Meiman and PR legend David Fenton spoke. They enlightened us about the issues of who controls and tells the story of the climate crisis and how to use the power of storytelling to bring new engagement to the movement.
350Brooklyn has testified numerous times before legislative and administrative bodies from the New York City Council to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. We come armed with accurate, concrete information and cogent arguments in pursuit of solutions to the climate crisis.
We take the “Brooklyn” in “350Brooklyn” seriously and take on neighborhood-based issues to make local streetscapes more resilient.
The Gowanus neighborhood is a moderate-income area that was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy and is home to an old industrial canal that is a Superfund site. Yet the neighborhood’s location makes it desirable by high-end developers. We are a member of the Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice, which centers the voices of public housing residents and those not heard in the city planning processes. GNCJ fought for an equitable rezoning plan, garnering record wins in the Points of Agreement, an agreement that prioritizes the needs of current residents and enhances their resilience in the face of the threat of flooding, super storms, and heat waves. In 2022 GNCJ won!
Despite clear and overwhelming evidence that the use of fossil fuels is a primary driver of the climate crisis, NYC, like elsewhere in the country, is perpetually under siege from companies that want to expand our use.
In coalition with other local groups we spent three years fighting the Williams company who wanted to dig a trench under the seabed offshore in which it would lay a massive fracked gas pipeline. We rallied, petitioned, wrote op eds, committed civil disobedience, testified–and we won!
The climate crisis has many causes and many solutions, but can be overwhelming. We break it up into manageable pieces. Our series “Climate Wednesdays,” presented in cooperation with the Brooklyn Public Library, took specific issues–transportation, food, health, parenting–and brought in local experts to talk about what is going on locally. Critically, these conversations included solutions so audience members could become active themselves in contributing to calming the climate crisis.