November 3, 2020

Top 10 DivestNY Actions Everyone Can Take

Want to get involved in the DivestNY campaign? Here are some actions you can take to help New York divest from fossil fuels.

Thousands of New Yorkers came together for the #Sandy5 march on October 28, 2017; to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in a wave of blue, participants are demanding powerful climate action from New York’s elected officials. Over 150 local, state and national organizations, with strong representation from neighborhoods impacted by the storm, signed-on to the march. (Photo by Erik McGregor)

Everyone loves a great top 10 list. Here’s some of the best actions you can take to help the campaign to divest New York from fossil fuels. Join in from the comfort of your home and make some calls, write some letter, buzz on social media.

  1. Sign the petition asking all Assembly Members to sponsor the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act. 
  2. Send a personalized email to your state legislators asking them to sign onto the FFDA. If they have already sponsored the bill, ask them to urge their colleagues to join them. Here’s a spreadsheet with email addresses. Just copy and paste your legislator (or all legislators) email address, write them a personalized note and hit send! 
  3. Call legislators and ask them to sponsor the Act. Use this spreadsheet to find out who hasn’t yet signed the bill and their office phone number. 
  4. Find the Facebook page of legislators and comment on their page. Pick a post they’ve made and write a comment on it, calling for their support of the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act and urging them to work to #DivestNY now.
  5. Go to the Facebook page of the New York State Comptroller and urge him to exercise his fiduciary responsibility and divest the state pension fund from fossil fuels. Congratulate him on divesting from thermal coal companies and tell him it’s time to divest from the rest of the fossil fuel sector including tar sands and shale companies and Big Oil like Exxon.  
  6. Follow @DivestNY on twitter and Tweet at a legislator. Be sure to include their twitter handle (you can find it in this spreadsheet) and also include the governor and the NYS Comptroller. Here’s a sample message:  “I ♥ NY. That’s why I’m calling on [YYYY legislator] & @NYSComptroller @NYGovCuomo to stop investing in climate destroying fossil fuels & invest in climate solutions instead. It’s time to #DivestNY @divestny divestny.org”
  7. Write a letter to editor (LTE) to the local paper of state legislators who have not yet signed onto the bill. This spreadsheet has links to LTE pages. Remember most letters need to be 150 words or less. Here are some examples of letters to the editor.
  8. Schedule a telephone call or video call with your legislator. The best way to schedule a call is to call their office and ask for an appointment. You can use these resources to prep you for your phone call:
    1. Speaking Points
    2. DivestNY Media releases
    3. 350.org financial analysis of NYS CRF losses
    4. Fossil Fuel Divestment Act Assembly bill link
    5. Fossil Fuel Divestment Act Senate bill link
  9. Are you a youth? Join the gang at New York Youth Climate Leaders who are organizing youth across the state to help DivestNY. We’ve got policy, social media and communications teams you can join and a super active Slack channel to support our organizing.  Check out ny2cl.org to join today. 
  10. Want to get even more involved? Please email divestny@gmail.com 

Go to the main DivestNY.org website

FacebookTwitter