Life Update Time

After 5 years, I’m leaving 350.org.

The short version is that the organisation ran into some financial troubles and my role was made redundant. There’s a longer story, which I will save for sharing over a beer or coffee if you’re interested in it.

It’s an unceremonious way for my time at 350 to end and there are a lot of complicated and contradictory feelings I’m sure I will continue to process for weeks to come. But for now I want to focus on the gratitude I have for my time at 350.

I had the opportunity to work on projects I would never have imagined and I got to do it all with some of my favourite people on the planet.

We took the divestment movement global, moving $11 trillion USD worth of investment funds away from the fossil fuel industry. More importantly, we loosened the stranglehold the fossil fuel industry long had on our politics. Maybe just enough for the people to wrestle back control before it is too late. Time will tell.

We scaled up the global resistance to fossil fuels with Break Free, a coordinated escalation of 20 bold actions on 6 continents. We pushed the boundaries of what our movement had done before and employed civil disobedience at a global scale like never before. I’d like to think Break Free planted a few seeds of ambition and hope that we are starting to see flourish now.

Most recently I project managed the digital work for the Global Climate Strike. With 7.6 million people taking to the streets around the world, it was the biggest climate mobilisation yet. 6,135 actions in 185 countries is no small feat. Digital for mass mobilisations is hard, often unglamorous work and — if you’ll forgive a little moment of pride — it’s work no one does better than the digital team at 350. I am so grateful to have learned from and contributed to that team over the years.

In hindsight it is easy to forget how impossible so many of these projects felt when we started them. I am lucky to have worked with so many practical, grounded people committed to doing impossible things. Solving the climate crisis is going to take a lot of seemingly impossible things, and we need more people willing to take that work on.

I have no idea what I will be doing next. But I need to take some time to rest first. I have put so much of myself into this work and 350, it’s hard to imagine myself without it. I’m looking forward to relearning how to be a human who is present in myself and my life. And before long, I can’t wait to start plotting with many of you again soon.