WASHINGTON - Tomorrow, Senator Bernie Sanders will join Bill McKibben and many prominent climate activists the day after the State of the Union to take on the Trump Administration and fossil fuel executives. The event, Fossil Free Fast: The Climate Resistance, launches Fossil Free U.S, a campaign to stop the Trump Administration’s big oil agenda by passing local resolutions committing to a fast and just transition to 100% renewable energy in cities and states nationwide. The event, to be held in Washington D.C, will be livestreamed to thousands around the country.

After a historic year of hurricanes devastating Houston, Florida, and Puerto Rico, floods across the South, and California and the Pacific Northwest’s wildfires, progressive leaders will outline a clear path forward for the climate movement in a “climate state of the union”. In his first year in office, Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, greenlit dangerous pipelines like Dakota Access and Keystone XL, and moved to open protected lands and waters to fossil fuel expansion -- and now he wants to pass a fossil fuel infrastructure bill. Yet across the U.S., people are already building bold climate solutions. The Fossil Free campaign will build momentum and connect these initiatives through hundreds of local campaigns across the country.

WHEN: January 31, 2018 at 7PM EST

WHERE: Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University

730 21st St NW, Washington, DC 20052

(livestream will be available at gofossilfree.org/usa)

WHO:

Senator Bernie Sanders

Bill McKibben, Co-Founder, 350.org

Reverend Lennox Yearwood, President and CEO, Hip Hop Caucus

Cherri Foytlin, L'eau Est La Vie Camp (Water is Life Camp) and Louisiana Rise

Jameka Hodnett, National Field Organizer, Ready for 100, Sierra Club

Adriana Voss-Andreae, Executive Director, 350PDX

Tara Rodriguez Besosa, Puerto Rico Resistance Fund

Jacqueline Patterson, Director of Environmental and Climate Justice Program, NAACP

Varshini Prakash, Sunrise Movement

Jessica Lorena Rangel, Eyes of a Dreamer

MEDIA RSVP: Media must RSVP to media@350.org by Wednesday, January 31 at 11:00 a.m. to secure a seat.

QUOTES:

Adriana Voss-Andreae MD PhD, 350PDX Executive Director said, “We have a historic opportunity to correct the path of injustice and destruction taken over past generations and turn the tide for us and many generations to come. Led by local and most impacted communities, we can and must rapidly phase out the extractive fossil fuel economy by disallowing all new fossil fuel infrastructure and saying ‘YES’ to the type of just and renewable energy future we want. Ordinary people everywhere are stepping up to be the extraordinary heroes of our movement.”

Jacqueline Patterson, Director of Environmental and Climate Justice Program, NAACP stated, “As we build a new energy economy, we must ensure it is rooted in principles and processes of equity and justice. Without deliberative intentionality, we run the risk of mirroring the injustices of the fossil fuel economy even as we aim to save the environment. To care for our ecosystem, it means we must be as concerned about human rights as we are about conservation. This means that our emerging new economy must take money out of politics and establish true democracy and it must ensure universal access to the commons including quality jobs/livelihoods, affordable and accessible energy, and clean air, clean water, healthy and nutritious food, affordable housing and land, accessible mobility/transit, and more.”

Senator Bernie Sanders said, “President Trump’s position on climate change is pathetic and an embarrassment. The debate is over. Climate change is real. It is caused by human activity, and if we do not act aggressively to move away from fossil fuels, the impacts will get much worse. In 2017, we saw fires, floods and massive hurricanes -- this is the kind of extreme weather that will become much more common with increasing climate change impacts. Now more than ever, millions of people must get engaged in the political process to demand that we finally put people before polluters.”

Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org said, "2017 was tough--we resisted, but we lost a lot of ground. 2018 we take that ground back, and we'll do it with this Fossil Free campaign that helps unite progressive environmentalists to move us off oil and coal and gas and on to a world that works. We move into high gear on January 31--across organizations, across the arts and sciences, and across the country (with some help from our friends across the planet). If you can't be there in person, you can still be there live--and you should be.”

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