The 350 Movement: A Video Retrospective

As we move beyond Copenhagen and push the movement into 2010, we wanted to showcase a few videos that show just how far we've come together over the past two years. It's been an incredible journey - one you've powered every step of the way -- and one we're all of us just getting started.

Phase 1: Spreading the Message "Because the World Needs to Know"

The movement got an early boost with an animated video, a wordless way to introduce the most important number in a world where people speak over 4000 languages. We did our best to boil down the science of global warming and vision of the 350 Campaign in 90 seconds:

Phase 2: Building a Movement "In every Corner of the Globe."

After over a year of getting to work building & uniting the movement all over the planet, we launched a video invitation to start & join actions on Oct 24th 2009 - what we hoped would be the biggest day of global action ever. Nothing like this had ever been tried before -- and we had no idea if would be a success (or more likely, a complete global fizzle!)

Phase 3: October 24th - "The Day the World Came Together"
It worked! On Oct 24th, people organized OVER 5,000 actions in 181 countries! To give an idea of the scope, climbers unveiled banners high on the slopes of Mt. Everest, divers plunged underwater with signs on the Great Barrier Reef -- and a totally unexpected 15,000 kids ran in Addis Ababa, Ethopia, all calling for the key to a safe climate future: 350! By the end of the day, CNN had dubbed Oct 24th, "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history". This video continues to inspire tears with the beautiful message of unity it conveys:

Phase 4: Standing in Solidarity and Showing That "The World Wants a Real Deal"

The momentum from Oct 24th continued well through the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen earlier this month. Then right in the middle of the negotiations, on Dec 11 & 12th, you made the movement glow. Once more, in every corner of the world, people organized vigils and rallies calling for a deal strong enough to get us back to 350. For one weekend, we were the armies for the countries on the front lines of the global climate crisis.

We'd like to say, of course, that the leaders of the whole world adopted the 350 target and solved the problem at Copenhagen. That didn't happen--the conference produced a weak and nonbinding accord that won't ever bring the planet's heating under control. But don't despair even for a minute--more than half the countries there explicitly endorsed the 350 target, adopting a goal that two years ago was seen as impractical, even impossible. Your hard work made that possible--and it represents stunning progress as we figure out new ways to take this fight forward. And we will...

Phase 5: Beyond Copenhagen - "We're Not Done Yet."

In the aftermath of Copenhagen, one thing's for sure: We're not done yet. Our friends at the Australian Youth Climate Coalition made this brilliantly clear with this powerful video message to world leaders: 

We're beyond grateful for all that you've given of yourselves to bring the movement this far (and it's gone extraordinarily far!) over the last two years, and are feeling deeply honored as we prepare to build an even more powerful & empowering movement with you in the new year.

We're in the midst of spending some quality time figuring out how we can best support the movement moving forward - hundreds of supporters have bravely shared their ideas with us, and we welcome yours as well.

Simply e-mail your ideas to ideas@350.org--or better yet, get started on implementing it in your community.

Onwards,

The 350.org Team

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