Skip to Content

Our Story

Fire Drill Fridays brings together new and lifelong climate activists to share ways we can reach a cleaner, greener, more just world. The future of our planet depends on us.

About Fire Drill Fridays

As climate activist Greta Thunberg said, “Our house is on fire” — and we need to act like it.

Inspired by Greta and the youth climate strikes, Reverend Barber’s Moral Mondays, and Randall Robinson’s anti-apartheid protests, actor and activist, Jane Fonda, launched Fire Drill Fridays (FDF) in collaboration with Greenpeace USA in October 2019. Starting in Washington, D.C. with a series of peaceful actions, FDF brings together frontline activists, youth, Indigenous leaders, climate experts, scientists, celebrities, and lovers of the planet to demand our elected leaders act on the climate emergency.

Since its inception, our movement to fight the global climate disaster has inspired hundreds of people to participate in non-violent direct action, thousands to rally, millions to amplify calls for action on social media, and the FDF virtual show has amassed more than 12 million views. 

About Greenpeace USA

Greenpeace is a global network of independent campaigning organizations that use peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Celebrating over 50 years of action, Greenpeace USA is committed to rebuilding the country’s unjust social, environmental, and economic systems from the ground up to address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first. 

Our Demands

The Biden Administration must immediately use its full suite of executive powers to declare a Climate Emergency. By doing so, President Biden could constrain the fossil fuel industry by unlocking the power to limit any new leasing on public lands and waters, halt crude oil exports, and ramp up domestic manufacturing for electric vehicles and clean energy. Our state and local elected officials must also tackle the climate emergency by supporting a transformation of our economy to 100% community-powered, renewable energy.

The U.S. cannot fight the climate crisis and continue to dig up, export, and burn more fossil fuels at the same time. Scientists are urgently calling to halve global emissions by 2030 and continue on to net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050. According to the International Energy Agency and the United Nations’ Secretary General, doing this requires an immediate halt to all new oil, gas, and coal development. Not one more permit, pump, or pipeline!

The U.S. has the resources and the ingenuity to show the world what is possible: we can transition away from oil and gas while creating more equitable, prosperous, and secure communities. Workers and communities who currently rely on the fossil fuel industry must be offered good union jobs and targeted local funding, along with a seat at the table as we design that transition. We must invest in the prosperity of communities on the frontlines of exploitation and pollution; respect Indigenous rights and sovereignty; and welcome those displaced by the cumulative effects of the climate crisis, economic inequality, and violence.

The science is clear — we need to rapidly phase out destructive fossil fuels (oil, gas, and coal) and start investing aggressively in a just transition to renewable energy.

January 12, 2024 / TIME

You Can’t Have Healthy People on a Sick Planet

“I’m a cancer survivor but also a climate activist and I’m very aware of the connection between the environment and health—especially cancer. The same fossil fuels that are driving the climate crisis are driving this health crisis.”

October 4, 2023 / The Nation

Jane Fonda’s Last Crusade

“We have to make fossil fuels as bad as tobacco, the kind of thing you’d never put money into, never want anybody to know you have money in. But we still have all these political leaders taking money from fossil fuel interests.”

May 3, 2023 / People

Jane Fonda on Why at 85 She’s the Happiest She’s Ever Been: ‘Life Gets Better with Age’

“I love this planet and want to do everything I can to protect it. I get really depressed because I read the science and I know what’s happening and it’s urgent and it could become catastrophic. It’s just inconceivable to me to not do everything that I can.”

Back to top