This Saturday, October 24th, the International Day of Climate Action, will inspire over 4000 actions in 170 countries, aimed at focusing attention on the number 350. This day may be the most widespread day of environmental activism in history, with the intention of urging world leaders to support a clear solution to the climate crisis: reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere to 350 parts per million.
There is consensus among leading climate scientists that 350 parts per million is the most carbon dioxide we can safely tolerate in the earth’s atmosphere. The current CO2 concentration is nearing 390 parts per million, and rising by 2 ppm each year.
The paradigm shifting 2008 paper by NASA’s Dr. James Hansen, and his team, which identified the tipping point of atmospheric CO2 at 350 ppm, concluded: “If the present overshoot of this target CO2 is not brief, there is a possibility of seeding irreversible catastrophic effects.”
The mission of the 350 campaign’s planetary day of action is “to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis – to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet.”
Bill McKibben the founder of 350.org, authored the first mainstream book on climate change, “The End of Nature”, twenty years ago. During the inaugural 2008 350 event, he said “Our leaders have heard from major corporations and big polluters for a long time—today, finally, they heard from citizens and scientists.”
This global demonstration comes six weeks before the world’s nations convene in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference to author a new climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The goal is to urge world leaders to draft a treaty that meets the severity of the climate crisis.
89 countries and more than 200 environmental and social groups have already endorsed the 350 global campaign, as well as the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, the world’s foremost climate economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, and Nobel prize-winner and environmental activist, Al Gore.
Step Forward
Step Forward this Saturday and help broadcast to world leaders that the people of planet Earth demand strong action on climate change.
- For more information, visit http://www.350.org
- To find an event near you: http://www.350.org/action-list
Additional Reading
- “Planetary Boundaries” – Nature News
- James Hansen on Peak CO2 and Big Carbon – World Changing
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Thank you for the solid and concise story with just the information I need. Why doesn’t mainstream media put all these pieces together for us so we know reasonable CO2 targets and what is being done about it? Excellent, Jane E.