350

Today I was inspired by Bill McKibben, founder of the global 350 movement. He gave a free public talk in Auckland about 350 and how New Zealanders can get behind it. The 350 movement aims to put pressure on governments to set carbon emission targets that will reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million (ppm). There is growing scientific consensus that 350 ppm is the "magic number" that we need to reach to avoid catastrophe. Currently the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is at 387 ppm and rising. Scary stuff! The good news is we have a window of opportunity to avoid catastrophic and irreversible damage to the Earth, so long as we act quickly and dramatically. Unfortunately all of us switching to environmentally friendly lightbulbs won't cut it. We need to think big.

The 350 movement has deemed October 24 2009 as the day to show the governments of the world that we want them to take big steps to bring their carbon emissions down so that we can reach 350 as soon as possible. After Bill had shared anecdotes like how he and some friends mobilised 1000 people in the US State of Vermont to march for five days to their state government buildings and convince all of the state government candidates to pledge to fight for strict carbon emissions targets if they were elected, I was convinced to sign myself up to help organise activities for October 24th. You can too at www.350.org.nz (or www.350.org if you live outside New Zealand). You can also see 350's funky animation showing the causes of climate change and what we can do to fight back. Bill's talk was recorded and will be put up on the website. It's inspiring - you should check it out.