Do The Math is a sort of grassroots sequel to An Inconvenient Truth. In the first film, Gore makes the case that climate change is a future threat that we should be increasingly worried about. In the second, Bill McKibben shows the terrifying math of the existing climate crisis and fight the fossil fuel industry. The math goes like this: our leading scientists say that in order to limit global warming to below 2°C, a target that even the United States has agreed to meet, we can only emit another 565 gigatons of carbon dioxide. The terrifying part is that the fossil fuel industry has roughly 2795 gigatons of CO2 in their coal, oil and gas reserves, five times more than we can safely burn, and everyday they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars searching for more fossil fuels.
Do The Math follows a 21-city tour that McKibben did last November to lay out that math and launch a new strategy to take on the fossil fuel industry: divestment. Modeled on the anti-apartheid campaigns of the 1980s, this new divestment effort would target the 200 fossil fuel companies that own the vast-majority of the world's coal, oil and gas reserves. Now, six months later, a coalition of groups including the Responsible Endowments Coalition, the Sustainable Endowments Institute, As You Sow, the Sierra Student Coalition, 350.org and others have helped spread this new divestment campaign to over 300 colleges and universities around the country.
The Do the Math Movie is being screened concurrently at 7:00 pm local time on April 21 at over 700 house-parties and screenings across the country as part of a national event we're calling #EarthNight (April 21st being the Earth Day eve). Bill and a number of other movement leaders, including climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, will be hosting two live-streams after the screenings at 8:00pm ET and 8:00pm PT which you can watch at: 350.org/math.
The film also tells the story of the growing fight against the Keystone XL pipeline. Bill and a 350.org project, Tar Sands Action, helped put Keystone XL in the national spotlight back in August 2011 with a two-week sit-in at the White House that led to the arrests of 1,253 Americans, the largest civil disobedience in over 20 years in this country. A few months later, more than 15,000 people returned to Washington, DC to surround the White House and forced President Obama to announce that he would be delaying the project for additional environmental reviews.
Keystone XL may be the most prominent fossil fuel fight in the country, but it's not the only one that is getting people into action. From the fight against fracking in New York and Ohio, to the struggle against mountaintop removal in Appalachia, to campaigns against coal export facilities in the Northwest, people all across the country are waging grassroots efforts to stop the fossil fuel industry's "extreme energy" push. Backyard fights like these helped galvanize a wave of environmental action in the late 1960s and 70s—hopefully we're seeing the start of another national movement today.
Our hope is that this Do The Math documentary will inspire people to join in these efforts. Every city in the country needs a divestment campaign; every coal plant needs a well-organized opposition. No matter where you turn, there are opportunities to do more than just change a lightbulb. Whether it's by teaming up with 350.org or joining a local grassroots group in your town, we just want to get you involved in this growing movement. Hopefully, the film will help accomplish that goal.
The Do the Math Movie is being screened concurrently at 7:00 pm local time on April 21 at house-parties and screenings across the country. Find a screening near you, host one yourself and add your name to The Nation's open letter imploring Secretary of State John Kerry to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline.
http://350.org/en/math
