The global climate-activist organization 350.org is “gearing up for a major new fight to end the billions of dollars in subsidies the fossil fuel industry receives each year.” In an online video, 350.org founder Bill McKibben reviews the accomplishments of the climate movement in the United States, including the non-violent civil disobedience at the White House that led to the rejection of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and the challenges ahead:

The power of the fossil fuel industry over national politics is “a big part of what’s making this planet less habitable day by day,” McKibben says, as he asks people to “join the fight” against fossil-fuel subsidies.

Environmental Activist and 350.org Founder Bill McKibben had a lot to be excited about when he walked onto the Colbert Report last night. After wondering publicly whether the environmental movement could accumulate 500,000 messages in 24-hours from citizens opposed to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, by last night he announced that they’d done it in less than seven.

But the battle over Keystone XL is not even close to finished. The Senate introduced an amendment in a transportation bill yesterday that would allow Congress to approve the project. Meanwhile, activist groups are hoping to raise over one million signatures against the tar sands pipeline by noon today — shattering any previous petitions from environmental organizations.

So it was fitting that faux-pundit Stephen Colbert invited McKibben “the troublemaker” onto his show just before the next Congressional showdown. Will the rally against the Keystone XL experience the infamous “Colbert Bump” after last night’s appearance? We can only hope.

“The Colbert Bump is the curious phenomenon whereby anyone who appears on The Colbert Report gets a huge boost in popularity, causing them to win elections, receive massive increases in money (making Colbert the greatest fundraiser ever), receive major awards and even get laid (The Colbert Bumpin’ Uglies).

Watch McKibben’s segment on last night’s show:

A broad coalition of the grassroots progressive movement is launching a 24-hour effort to mobilize 500,000 people opposing Republican efforts to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. GOP senators “plan to file an amendment mandating the project to the Senate transportation package Monday,” the Hill reports. In a Daily Kos diary, 350.org founder Bill McKibben — who led thousands of Americans who got arrested last summer in front of the White House in opposition to the pipeline — explains the “powerful, unified fight” to “keep this pipeline dead“:

We’re going to war at noon eastern today–non-violent war, but a powerful, unified fight against the heart of right-wing power, the fossil fuel industry. We’re out to collect half a million emails in 24 hours telling the Senate: back up the president and keep this pipeline dead. It’s going to be the most concentrated burst of environmental activism this millennium–and it needs you.

This effort includes a diverse coalition of the national environmental movement — including the Environmental Defense Fund, Rainforest Action Network, the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Wildlife Federation and Green For All. As McKibben said, it’s “everyone else who’s ever tried to save a whale, clean a lake, build a park, find a solar job.”

The 24-hour push isn’t just a “green” cause, but one of the American progressive movement. Other organizations participating in the petition drive include MoveOn, Credo, Democracy for America, Public Citizen, Change.org, the Labor Network for Sustainability, and businesses like Patagonia.

Bill McKibben will be on the Colbert Report tonight to discuss the effort to prevent the destruction of our climate for the profit of foreign oil companies.

The Occupy Wall Street Movement started with a handful of protesters in the middle of September. Today, it is snowballing into a national movement for “the other 99 percent” — representing a diverse group of Americans who feel disenfranchised by a political and financial system that ignores them.

And now, riding on the momentum created by the Keystone XL pipeline protests in Washington last month, leaders of the climate movement are getting involved.

This evening, a coalition of climate activists led by 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben is marching through New York City and joining the thousands of protesters outside of Wall Street:

“For too long, Wall Street has been occupying the offices of our government, and the cloakrooms of our legislatures,” wrote Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, in an email urging supporters to join the march, “They’ve been a constant presence, rewarded not with pepper spray in the face but with yet more loopholes and tax breaks and subsidies and contracts. You could even say Wall Street’s been occupying our atmosphere, since any attempt to do anything about climate change always run afoul of the biggest corporations on the planet. So it’s a damned good thing the tables have turned.”

“If Wall Street is occupying President Obama’s State Department and the halls of Congress, it’s time for the people to occupy Wall Street,” said Phil Aroneanu, US campaigns Director for 350.org, who is leading the climate delegation for Wednesday’s march.

Seeing this broad-based movement as an opportunity to elevate demands for climate action, groups are planning continued action. Along with the 350.org march, a coalition of youth and environmental activists lead by the Energy Action Coalition are holding an Occupy Wall Street “sleep-in” at the U.S. Department of State to protest the Keystone XL Pipeline.

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Phil Aroneanu from 350.org went to Liberty Square in downtown New York City to talk with some of the organizers and activists talking part in the #occupywallstreet protest. Hundreds of people are occupying the park, organizing, and making connections across a wide range of issues, including climate change, but with one common message: “We want a more just and more fair world for everyone.”

“We will not join the others in the denial, in the pretend, in the ‘let business happen as usual,’ because our kids and our grand kids mean more to us than our own greed. And we’re going to get off oil and move forward as quickly as we know how.”

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin got the crowd fired up at 350.org’s “Moving Planet” event at the Vermont Statehouse in Montpelier last week.   Shumlin spoke about the recent impacts of global climate change on Vermont, how Vermont has taken a leadership role in doing something about it, and how the state can do even more to overcome this challenge in the future:

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin at 350.org’s “Moving Planet” event from Ben B on Vimeo.

Vermont was devastated by the 1-in-100 year deluge from Hurricane Irene:

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