350.org
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Do you remember our Oct. 30, 2012 post, toward the end of the post there were photos of Time Square Connect The Dots Action “End Climate Silence” by 350.0rg ? The more I’ve looked into 350.org, the greater I felt that it resonated well with what Sun Is The Future is trying to accomplish. Our goals are quite compatible with one another;promotion of use of solar energy would ultimately help to reduce the CO2 emission in the atmosphere. Allow me to share what’s been stated in wikipedia about 350.org, below:
350.org is an international environmental organization, headed by author Bill McKibben, with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness of anthropogenic climate change, to confront climate change denial, and to cut emissions of one of the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, in order to slow the rate of global warming. 350.org takes its name from the research of NASA scientist James E. Hansen, who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million (ppm) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point.
The organization was founded by author Bill McKibben, an American environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming, alternative energy, and the need for more localized economies. McKibben promotes the organisation, for instance by writing articles about it for many major newspapers and media, such as the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian.
The organising effort drew its name from climate scientist James Hansen‘s contention in winter 2008 that any atmospheric concentration of CO2 above 350 parts per million was unsafe. James Hansen opined that “if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm, but likely less than that.” Carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, rose by 2.3 parts per million to 389 ppm in 2010 from the previous year, and continued to increase with January 2012 atmospheric CO2 concentration at 393.09 and crossed 400 ppm on monitors in May 2012 in the industrialized Northern Hemisphere’s Arctic region.
McKibben first started to organize against global warming with a walk across Vermont, his home state. His “Step It Up” campaign in 2007 involved 1,400 demonstrations at famous sites across the United States. McKibben credits these activities with making Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama change their energy policies during the presidential campaign. Later, the continued melting of the polar cap pushed him into starting 350.org, based on Hansen’s 2007 book Climate Code Red.
Rajendra Pachauri, the U.N.‘s “top climate scientist” and leader of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has come out in favor of reducing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to 350 ppm. McKibben called news of Pachauri’s embrace of the 350 ppm target “amazing”. Some media have indicated that Pachauri’s endorsement of the 350 ppm target was a victory for 350.org’s activism.
The organisation had a lift in prominence after founder McKibben appeared on The Colbert Report television show on Monday August 17, 2009. The organisation disseminates its message through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. In 2012 the organization was presented with the 2012 Katerva Award for Behavioural Change.
The 350 movement is treating the 350ppm cap as a rallying cry for a 2009 COP15 international treaty. 350 member Alec Appelbaum stated that “We need global compacts to enforce carbon caps, because emissions change the climate whether or not they come from regulated sources. But we also need ingenious businesses to make those caps meaningful. That’s true because no matter how severely we warp the climate, we have to go on living.” The overall goal is to influence governments to adopt policies that would lower carbon dioxide emissions.
Below is the press release (on Nov. 6, 2012) for an upcoming event of 350.org,
Environmentalists Announce New Keystone XL Demonstration at the White House on November 18, 2012
Oakland — In the wake of President Barack Obama’s re-election, environmentalists today called for a demonstration outside the White House on Nov. 18 to show the president that he has their support if he denies the permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
The demonstration will follow 350.org’s “Do the Math” event at the Warner Theatre and will feature thousands of activists, a 500-foot pipeline, and several speakers–including Bill McKibben, who led the Keystone XL protests last summer in which 1,252 people were arrested.
The full letter is below.
CONTACT: Daniel Kessler, 350.org, 510-501-1779 , daniel@350.org
Dear friends—
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, as the warmest year in American history draws to a close, as the disastrous drought lingers on in the Midwest, everyone is looking for ways to make a real difference in the fight to slow climate change. We’d like to ask you to come once more to Washington, to resume the battle to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline, mid-afternoon on Nov. 18th.
This summer President Obama took the biggest step of any president to date when he raised fuel efficiency standards — a move that will cut US greenhouse gas emissions by 10% when fully implemented. Many of you worked to make this happen. Thank you. It’s an important step in the right direction. Let’s take a few more.
As you’ll recall, your efforts last year slowed down the decision, giving the State Department more time to consider the impacts of a dangerous export pipeline that will transport one of the world’s dirtiest, most carbon-intensive fuels. Although they did go ahead with the southern segment, where many of our colleagues are waging a remarkable fight against its construction. But now that the election is over a decision by the President is imminent—the administration has hinted a decision could come in the first quarter of 2013.
Here’s what’s changed since last year: the Arctic has melted disastrously.
Here’s what hasn’t changed: Keystone XL is still a crazy idea, a giant straw into the second biggest pool of carbon. Even if it doesn’t spill, it would add 900,000 barrels of oil worth of carbon each day to the earth’s atmosphere, or as much as the new auto efficiency regulations would save. It would, in other words, cancel out the whole long fight to increase auto mileage. Those tar sands are still the dirtiest energy on the planet.
And more and more people are realizing it. Our brothers and sisters in Canada have effectively blocked the so-called Gateway Pipeline to Canada’s west coast. It won’t be built anytime soon, depriving the administration of their only halfway decent argument—that the oil would just go somewhere else. No, Barack Obama is now even more the man who holds the fate of the tar sands expansion in his hands.
No one needs to get arrested this time—though that may come as the winter wears on. For now we simply need to let the President know we haven’t forgotten, and that our conviction hasn’t cooled. Please be there if you possibly can.
Many thanks,
Michael Brune, Sierra Club
Naomi Klein, author
James Hansen, NASA
Tzeporah Berman, author
Jane Kleeb, BOLD Nebraska
Michael Kieschnick, Credo Mobile
Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network
Gus Speth, author and professor of law, Vermont Law School
Maura Cowley, Energy Action Coalition
Rebecca Tarbotton, Rainforest Action Network
Joe Uehlein, Labor Network for Sustainability
Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Michael Mann, Penn State University Earth System Science Center
Bill McKibben and May Boeve, 350.org
Stephen Kretzmann, Oil Change International
Bridge the Gulf Project
Tar Sands Blockade
gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker, more editorial comments about this in the next post. Any of your comments/suggestions will be welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Homepage: http://www.sunisthefuture.net
Tags: 350, 350 ppm, 350.0rg, Alec Appelbaum, anthropogenic, Bill McKibben, carbon dioxide, climate change, CO2, Colbert Report, COP15, Facebook, global warming, grassroots, greenhouse, James Hansen, Katerva Award, Rajendra Pachauri, Sn Is The Future, solar, Sun, sunisthefuture.net, susan sun nunamaker, tipping point, UN