How to get involved in the fight against climate change

Wondering what you can do? These groups have climate campaigns and info galore — check out their sites, connect with them on social networks, and get involved!

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Climate-focused groups

350.org
A grassroots group led by author Bill McKibben and born out of the belief that climate change needs a robust social movement behind it. The name comes from the maximum “parts per million” of carbon dioxide that many scientists believe our atmosphere can safely handle. 350.org grew out of the 2007 Step It Up campaign that held more than 2,000 rallies nationwide in 2007. Now it’s focused on Oct. 24, 2009, the International Day of Climate Action.
Key Peeps: Bill McKibben–environmental author, Grist board member, all-around eco-stud

1Sky
A campaign working to build a network of advocates who can push the 1Sky Solutions—creating green jobs, freezing climate pollution, and halting use of coal and other dirty fuels. The group helped lead a push against new coal plants after the coal-ash spill disaster in Tennessee last December.

Energy Action Coalition
A youth-led network behind the Campus Climate Challenge and two Power Shift youth conference/rallies in Washington, D.C., plus the Power Shift ’09 campaign—“Rebuild Our Economy and Reclaim Our Future.”
Key peeps: Cofounder Billy Parish is a Grist contributor

Focus the Nation
Another youth-focused group that uses campus teach-ins, town hall meetings, and other events to spread the conviction that climate change delivers the kick in the pants our nation needs to transition to a clean energy economy. It claims to have organized the largest teach-in in U.S. history–nearly 1 million people at 1,900 institutions–in January 2008.

The Climate Project
Al Gore founded this international campaign to train citizens to present the climate slideshow he made famous in An Inconvenient Truth. At first, Climate Project presenters focused on educating the public about the science of global warming. This May, the group took on a new, more activist mission: helping to pass a climate bill in Congress.
Key peeps: Al Gore

Alliance for Climate Protection
Another Gore-founded group, the Alliance focuses on major advertising and awareness campaigns–The We Campaign, This Is Reality, Repower America. It plans to coordinate with The Climate Project in supporting a climate bill this year.
Key peeps: Al Gore, again

StopGlobalWarming.org
A “virtual march” for climate action.

Climate-focused coalitions

Tcktcktck.org
A new coalition of groups like 350.org and Greenpeace focused on reminding the world that the time for a global climate plan is tck-tck-tck-ing down to this December’s negotiations in Copenhagen.

CLEAN
A collection of state and local groups pulling for a national energy policy based on renewable sources, not fossil fuels.

Blue Green Alliance
A partnership of labor and environmental groups raising support for green jobs. Led by the nation’s largest manufacturing union, the United Steelworkers of America, and the nation’s largest environmental group, the Sierra Club.

Apollo Alliance
A coalition of labor, business, environmental, and community leaders that believes the U.S. transition to clean energy must be like “big, bold, and fast”–like the Kennedy-era Apollo space program that put a man on the moon after less than a decade. Sample groups: Teamsters, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Green For All.