350BK started with a few women meeting in each other’s homes in 2015. People who were active in organizing the massive 2014 NYC Climate March, 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.
350Brooklyn has held numerous public meetings since the summer of 2015 when we asked City Council Member Brad Lander to hold a Town Hall meeting on Climate Change and he eagerly complied. We consistently work to hold our representatives accountable.
In this photo we are challenging local Congressional Representative Hakeem Jeffries on his failure to support the Green New Deal. From NYC to Albany to Washington, we demand that our elected officials act to address the climate crisis.
When the tool is appropriate we will throw down and block the entrance to a building or stop traffic and demand attention is given to the unseen violations of justice that occur daily.
Here you see one of the 350Brooklyn members arrested in 2016 at a protest at National Grid’s headquarters over that utility’s efforts to expand fracked gas pipelines in our region.
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 is being eyed by high-end developers. We participate in the Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice, led by local public housing residents, who are fighting for a zoning plan that prioritizes the needs of current residents and enhances their resilience in the face of the threat of flooding, super storms, and heat waves.
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.
