Activism Campaign Appraisal 2

ACTIVISM CAMPAIGN APPRAISAL 1
Activism Campaign Appraisal
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ACTIVISM CAMPAIGN APPRAISAL 2
3. Background to the Issues (20%)
Currently, one of the challenges facing the world today is climate change. Climate change is
attributed to by many factors, and majorly the release of fossil fuels into the atmosphere.
Most of the fossil fuel generally are directly related to the non- renewable sources of energy
which ends up depleting the resources on the surface of the earth, jeopardizing sustainability
as well as causing changes in the climate patterns (Alaimo, 2012). The end results is that
individual from all walks of life are being exposed to the danger of the climate change, which
ranges from exposure to ultraviolet rays, increased temperatures on the earth, pre-empted
long periods of drought, depletion of the ozone layer and subsequent insufficiency of oxygen
in the atmosphere, cancerous diseases among others (Bernadino and Sumida, 2017).
A fight, thus, aimed at creating justice to the earth, by averting the possible causes of climate
change and proposing sustainable approaches towards achieving various manly objectives, is
a worthy fight. In light with this, 350.org has strongly come out to fight against various
practices which are detrimental to the atmosphere. Additionally, the organizational practices
aimed at creating community-led renewable energy for everyone.
a. Identifying the problems/issues the campaign aims to address
The various issues which the 350.org aims at addressing includes:
 A quick transition to renewable energy – the organization is aiming to achieve this by
supporting community-led energy solutions (Hestres, 2014).
 Stopping the implementation of any new fossil project - the organization is aiming to
achieve this by banning all the gas, coal and oil projects via community resistance and
local resolutions (Klein, 2015).
 Averting the economics of dirty energy - the organization is aiming to achieve this by
stopping the financing of fossil fuel companies as well as stopping the social license.

ACTIVISM CAMPAIGN APPRAISAL 3
b. Defining the campaign goals/objectives
The specific campaign goal of 350.org includes
 Developing knowledge and sharing of skills in order to organize movements
 Utilizing the already existing plans to organize a power shift in various nations
 Creation of a definitive theory of change, as well as a political alignment
 Experience sharing from various nations (McGregor, 2011)
 Creation of strategies to stun the various challenges
 Creation of strong relationships to foster the regional as well as international
collaboration and cooperation (McKibben, 2016).
c. How did the campaign establish credibility as an activist?
350.org represents a new generation of environmental activism which has over the past ten
years gained significant momentum and leading various campaigns such as the people's
climate march, justice, rise for climate, jobs, and Exxon Knew (Monastersky, 2009). Yearly,
the organization attracts thousands of people who participate in the annual activities and
chapter meetings. Besides the networking of the grassroots personnel’s, the organization also
connects various climate change activist groups for major projects as well as demonstrations.
The credibility of activism is dated back to the founder of the organization, bill McKibben,
who long before was an environmentalist activist (Schifeling and Hoffman, 2017). After
documenting his first book, the end of nature; in 1989 that essentially introduced the readers
to the idea of climate change; he led a step-up campaign in 2006 which led to various protests
as well as nationwide demonstrations. Following the enthusiasm, momentum, and expansion
of the idea, it was changed to 350.
Additionally, the other supportive group was comprised of alumni from Middlebury college,
who took the ideas of Bill McKibben, turning them into a great revolution. After it had
resulted in a lot of success surprises across, it degenerated into grassroots and policy