Climate change is arguably the most complex challenge humanity faces today. It has been linked to heat waves, droughts, floods, extreme weather, and other phenomena that can affect entire ecosystems, as well as human health and well-being (Stocker and Oin 2013). The growing threat of climate change has prompted significant levels of activism around the world, much of which has taken advantage of civic media to engage supporters and mobilize political action.

350.org, a relatively new advocacy organization established in 2007, has been one of the most successful climate campaigns to date. Co-founded by environment writer Bill McKibben and students from Middlebury College, its main goal is to build “a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis.” By mobilizing citizens deeply concerned about climate change, 350.org seeks to generate enough grassroots pressure on decision-makers to compel them to address the problem (Hestres 2014). The group has gained notoriety for leading a civil disobedience campaign against the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast. 

350.org is also an example of a new type of political organization made possible by the Internet’s growth as a communication platform. 

These Internet-mediated advocacy organizations display a hybrid advocacy model most commonly associated with MoveOn.org. They tend to have smaller staffs, operate in hybrid, networked environments that mix face-to-face and virtual interactions, and rely on different fundraising models than their older predecessors (Karpf 2012). While such groups tend to embrace multi-issue policy agendas, single-issue variants like 350.org are becoming more common.

Here are some examples of how 350.org has successfully deployed civic media tools:

Online Tools For Offline Action

Most U.S. organizations active in climate advocacy rely on a “armchair” or “checkbook” activism model, fundraising from supporters to pay for professional political operations and policy or scientific expertise (Skocpol 2003). By contrast, 350.org has emphasized offline grassroots actions and used online tools to facilitate them. The group has deployed multiple variations of event management tools, usually tied to national or global days of action that make it easy for activists to join local events, or organize their own. Figure 1 shows an event management tool deployed for a protest in Washington, DC. Combined with mass email appeals, 350.org uses these tools to empower its supporters to join or organize actions that feel commensurate to the scale of the problem (Hestres 2014).