May Boeve

In this episode of the Mother Earth Podcast, 350.org Executive Director May Boeve joins us for a conversation on the grassroots movement to stop the climate crisis. May shares with us her thoughts and ideas on climate divestment and other campaigns that she is helping to lead, 350's determination to win the moral battle in this "can't lose" decade on the climate crisis, the importance of unions and frontline communities in the climate movement, and, most importantly, how everyone can get involved and make a difference. May also looks back with us on her own journey over the past fifteen years from concerned college student to international climate leader, a story she recounts with a mixture of pride and a candid understanding of the role that white privilege played in her success.

As college students in 2006, May and her classmates learned about the role of protest in social movements and put their lessons to use by organizing a thousand-person climate protest in Vermont. From this humble beginning comes the international climate action organization 350.org, which has staged thousands of climate rallies around the world. Its mobilizations have included the People's Climate March in 2014 that drew over 400,000 people to New York City and the 2019 Climate Strike in which some 7.5 million people protested at thousands of locations in 150 countries. 350.org has put the movement back into the environmental movement.

Please join us around our virtual campfire as May brings us behind the organization, shares her thoughts on the power of civil disobedience, discusses the importance of collaboration in this extraordinary moment led by young people and new climate protest groups emerging everywhere, and recounts the origin story of 350.org.

Visit the show notes pages of our website to learn more, to get involved and take action. And donate to 350.org here. It just might save the Earth.

For People and Planet, thank you for listening.