350.org was founded in 2008 by a group of university friends in the United States along with author Bill McKibben, who wrote one of the first books on global warming for the general public, with the goal of building a global climate movement. 350 was named after 350 parts per million — the safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Our first actions were global days of action that linked activists and organizations around the world, including the International Day of Climate Action in 2009, the Global Work Party in 2010, Moving Planet in 2011. 350 quickly became a planet-wide collaboration of organizers, community groups and regular people fighting for the future.Today 350 works on grassroots campaigns across the globe: from opposing coal plants and mega-pipelines, to building renewable energy solutions and cutting financial ties of the fossil fuel industry. All of our work leverages people power to dismantle the influence and infrastructure of the fossil fuel industry.
Some of our proudest moments of recent years include campaigns against Keystone XL and Dakota Access in the United States, stopping fracking in hundreds of cities and states in Brasil, joining historic grassroots mobilizations before and after the Paris Climate Agreement was signed, and pushing hundreds of universities, foundations, cities and churches to divest from fossil fuels.