Friday, October 23, 2009

350 is the most important number in the world

"Tomorrow will be the single most widespread day of citizens' action that the earth has ever seen."
In Cape Town a group of hikers will form a human 350 on top of Table Mountain which will be filmed from a helicopter "to send out the powerful message to the world that we need a fair, ambitious and binding agreement at Copenhagen towards promoting the safety of our ecosystems and the communities which depend on them".
Other events in South Africa include the Emmarentia Dam march (on Saturday from 10:00 to 16:00) in Johannesburg, where supporters can join a parade, enjoy a picnic afterwards and get the opportunity to write a postcard to President Jacob Zuma urging him to go to Copenhagen.
If you like building sand castles, Durban is the place to be. Between 11:00 to 13:00 Dairy beach will be transformed with sand art, music and inspiration. "As 350-Messenger, Archbishop Tutu says, 'I ask all people to support climate fairness tomorrow by starting or joining an awareness-raising action where you live. It's a chance for us to act as global citizens, not as isolated individuals and lonely consumers.'"
clipped from www.news24.com
Millions of people will be participating in over 4 000 events in 170 countries, including South Africa, in a call on leaders to take global action against the worst crisis humans have ever faced,  by reducing carbon levels in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million.
"A year ago, our greatest climatologist - Nasa's James Hansen - and his team produced a landmark series of studies. They showed that if we let the amount of carbon in the atmosphere go above 350 parts per million, we can’t have a planet similar to the one on which civilisation developed and to which life on earth has adapted," says McKibben.
The bad news is that we're already past that number. "We're at 390 parts per million, which is why the Arctic is melting, why drought is spreading across the planet, why people are already dying from diseases like dengue fever and malaria occurring in places where they’ve never been seen before."
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