350: The Climate Event That Might Just Save the World

It's the question of the hour, right? Can we save the world from the destruction that the scientists are predicting?

350.org has coordinated the largest climate event in history to demonstrate that people around the world want to live in a safe and clean environment. But it's not your grandma's brand of protest. Actually, there will be no protest. No picketing. No parades. No police barricades. Just millions of people from around the world making images of 350.

When 350.org founder Bill McKibben says he is, "tired of losing and it's fun to take the bad guys down a peg or two..." he wasn't kidding. McKibben skyped in to speak with Current Green from his home in Vermont while 350.org staffer May Boeve and climate activist/bike rider Adam Taylor of Ride 350 came into our online studio to discuss what went into organizing what is predicted to be the largest climate event in history.

If 350.org has anything to do it with it, yes we can save the world from the predicted effects of climate change. The organization was made for the sole purpose of ensuring that everyone knows the following fact:

350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide--measured in parts per million in our atmosphere. 350 PPM--it's the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change.

The bad news: we have already surpassed 350.

The good news: People around the world are organizing to put pressure on their climate negotiators who are preparing their stance for Copenhagen.

The current stats on the event (which get larger by the minute): 162 countries are signed up to participate (including Iraq, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Honduras) and more than 3,700 actions/events.

Follow Leah Lamb on Twitter: www.twitter.com/leahlamb

Comments

[lightningbolt]

What people need to understand is that these protests are very nice and creative, but they do not accomplish anything. Unless we make bribery (aka private campaign finance) illegal, politicians will continue working for those who pay the bribes, in this case the coal, oil, timber and other companies who are opposed to climate change legislation. So in order to save the planet, we must FIRST make bribery illegal. Bribery is the number one obstacle to change and reform, and unless we make it illegal, there will be no change and reform.

[Black North]

Focusing only on CO2 levels without addressing the issue of the size of the human population means we are bound to fail in our ultimate goal of saving the planet! I believe that the next billion will arrive in a mere 12 years. Since many of this billion will be born in Indian and China which are economies and peoples who are steeply increasing their consumption of fossil fuel plus other resources and whose political masters are unlikely and unable to put the brakes on their respective industrial juggernauts because of the widespread social upheaval it will cause we are in for a bumpy ride! It is like trying to bail out water from a sinking lifeboat while more and more people are getting on board. Population capping should go hand in hand with greenhouse gases but this Elephant in the room seems rarely if ever mentioned. Religious organizations such as the Catholic church who teach against even the most basic form of birth control, the condom, to their increasingly Third World and uneducated faithful must be seen for what they are - saboteurs of spaceship Earth

[BettyMcDonalds]

Check out this new findings, Leah. Livestock is responsible for 51% of the GHGs.
http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf

[Thermodynamics]

I also do not like animal confinements, feed lots, animal slavery - any of that.

But I can't digest soy, and I have tried. I can handle a little tempeh but the other forms don't work for me. Please, let's not put soy in everything.

The Weston Price Foundation is not so positive about soy.
http://www.westonaprice.org/mythstruths/mtsoy.html