October 15th, 2009
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
In honor of blog action day, so designated by the group Change.org with partners like Greenpeace and 350.org, I found myself explaining the 350 number to my kids on the way to school. As it happens, the teenager already knew about this benchmark, thanks to AP science classes and the vast online world. The younger one didn’t. But she got it right away.
It’s not a hard concept.
Once we thought that the threshold for too much carbon pollution in the air should be set 450 ppm. That would be the upper limit for carbon dioxide in the air, the point at which things could turn ugly. Keep carbon dioxide below 450 and we’d avert the sort of greenhouse gas warming that would strip Earth of the polar ice caps, flood coastlines and islands around the globe, kill off forests, drive legions of animals into extinction, intensify droughts and generally stir up Kansas in ways Dorothy never imagined.
But today many groups and scientists are saying that the 450 threshold is too lax (see this 2008 report by one group of scientists.). Why? Because we’re already living in a world where the polar ice caps are melting and the coastlines are creeping upward.
The destruction we thought was down the road, off in the hazy future, is already happening. And we’re only at 390 ppm. What happens at 450 ppm? Do we want to find out?
“Things are happening much faster than we expected, 350 is the unfortunate threshold. Unfortunate because we’re already past it,” said environmentalist and 350.org founder Bill McKibben in a news conference this week.
McKibben likened the situation to the guy who sees his doctor and is told that his cholesterol is high, so he should watch it, versus the guy who turns up at the doctor’s office already in the danger zone and needs intervention.
“We’re already having heart attacks,” he said, referring to global signs of climate change. “We have to accelerate the transition off fossil fuel much faster than we thought. We have to act quickly so the forests and oceans can scrub the carbon from the atmosphere.”
“That’s why we’ve mounted this campaign, 350.org.”
Like I said, it’s not hard to understand.
The difficult question is, will it be achievable?
McKibben, who’s devoted his writing and scholarly career to environmental action, sees hopeful signs. He cited growing public awareness and the openness of the Obama Administration to make changes, as well as receptiveness to the message around the globe. He mentioned the Maldives, which stands to disappear underwater, where the national leaders are holding a scuba-cabinet meeting to highlight their plight.
The missing element, McKibben believes, is a strong push from the public at large that could help Congress, businesses and other leaders justify making the hard decisions required to curb global warming. And, he noted, it would be nice if that push made itself evident sometime before the Copenhagen Conference in December where global leaders will set goals for greenhouse gas emissions.
The public needs to clamor for the changes it wants and needs, or face having to accept policies that don’t go far enough and won’t solve the problem, he said.
Since falling short is not an option for the members of 350.org, the group has organized a International Day of Climate Action set for Oct. 24. Thousands of rallies in at least 170 nations across both Latin and South America, Africa and Europe and even in Iraq and Afghanistan are planned. There will be about 1,000 events just in the US (you can sign up or find one near you at the website).
All of these demonstrations will be making the point that we need to roll back the blanket of pollution that’s turning Earth into a toxic greenhouse.
So save the date. And remember the number.
“It’s not action we need,” McKibben said. “It’s action enough to make a difference.”
Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media
