Dear Friends,
We’re getting ready for our most ambitious venture yet, and I wanted to give you advance notice.
Beginning Nov. 7th, I’ll be leading a roadshow around the country, 20 cities in 20 nights (with a few days for breaks and travel in between). We’re calling it the Do the Math tour, but it’s not (thank heaven) just going to be me standing in front of a microphone — it’s a whole production that will bring together musicians, artists and voices from across the movement to work together on directly confronting the financial and political might of the fossil fuel industry.
You can expect some powerful stories from our growing movement, some music, and a lot of difficult questions that we’re going to answer together about how to win this fight.
You’re exactly the people we need to be there — folks who understand the climate math already, have experience as leaders in the movement, and are willing to step up to do more. Can you make it out to our stop in Portland on Nov. 8th?
Click here to buy tickets for the Do the Math tour stop in Portland: test.eventbrite.com/event/4357262690
I do a lot of talks to big groups, but this is a new kind of undertaking for me, and for 350.org. We’re trying to quickly build up some serious momentum, which is why we’ve gone to great lengths to make this a very different kind of event.
First, it’s, well, a production. The 350.org team and I just took a few days together in Brooklyn to put the finishing touches on our designs for the event itself — it’s going to be a full evening of music, of guests on video and in person (folks like Naomi Klein, Jim Hansen, Desmond Tutu, with more to come), all offering their take on the the message I wrote about in Rolling Stone this summer, about the math that will define our fight against climate change. That article turned into one of the most-shared pieces in the magazine’s history, and this tour is going to turn that attention into momentum for a all-out attack on the financial might of the fossil fuel industry.
Second, and more importantly, it’s the kickoff to some serious organizing in your community. This tour will launch our next big mission — a campaign to take on the fossil fuel industry directly, with divestment drives on campuses, churches, synagogues and mosques; with civil disobedience aimed at the oil, gas, and coal companies; and whatever else it takes to send the message that it is not OK to sacrifice our future for the sake of one industry’s bottom line.
Over the past few months our planet gave stark warning signs that humans have never seen before. The Arctic melted, breaking every record. The Great Plains sweltered. The West burned. We’re running out of time, and so we need to step up our game. This roadshow is the next big step — but the price of admission, besides the ticket, is a willingness to really go to work to change the world in the year ahead. That’s why we need you there. Click here to buy tickets for the event in Portland.
The stakes have never been this high, and I’ve never been more serious.
I’ll see you on the road very soon,
–Bill McKibben for 350.org
PS – if you’re a student on a college campus, we particularly need your help – before you buy a ticket, please take a moment to sign up here so that we can be in touch about what you can do with your school to jump-start the movement: act.350.org/survey/students-do-the-math/
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