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A Shared Vision on How to Change the Course

“What would it look like if we won the battle against climate change?”

RAN attempted to answer this question through Change the Course, a people-powered approach for developing strategies for a stable climate. 

Despite the fossil fuel industry and their political allies pushing us toward climate catastrophe, RAN believes a mass social movement can still change the course of history and chart a new direction toward a just and climate-stable future. Change the Course invited people to create a detailed vision of what that future will look like and develop strategies to get there, step by step.

Launched in 2014, the first phase of Change the Course included training sessions in 15 cities across the United States. It engaged 700 community activists and energy innovators in two-day interactive climate visioning summits. At the summits, we facilitated participants to imagine, describe, and draw a bold future where we have successfully stopped the worst impacts of climate change. Participants explored how new energy, transportation, agriculture, urban planning, and other systems might function in a sustainable and equitable 2050. Once their vision had been articulated, participants identified strategies to achieve their vision and clear, immediate actions to lead us on the way.

In the second phase, participants engaged in an online platform to create a shared, crowdsourced vision of a climate stable 2050. Tens of thousands of people engaged with the platform to further build the shared vision.


Here's the result of that effort: Change the Course: Our Shared Vision

Fundamental to this project was prioritizing effective partnerships, particularly with groups doing the bold and visionary work around issues of racial justice and economic justice. Together with a wide variety of organizations, our long-term goal has been creating a collective vision that is as ambitious and representative as the multi-issue, multi-community coalition necessary to achieve transformative change.

Going forward, we hope individuals and organizations alike find inspiration from this vision to continue working towards climate stability and climate justice. 

Rainforest Action Network uses people power to challenge business as usual.

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