Resources about climate change

     and how to build a sustainable future.

   

Welcome to everyone from 95 countries who use this website.

Together, we are building an international community of people

who care about climate change.

 (click  350 News on the Welcome page for details).

 “Not a moment to lose”  so let’s set about it.

 

 What Global Warming Looks Like…So Far – by James Hansen

 

 

 

 Click the Highlight or News List for the Summary of his latest scientific paper.

 

350 Campaign is calling for people all over the world

to organise a big  event on 10/10/10.  Getting To Work.

Go to: www.350.org Click ACTION RESOURCES then FIND APRIL … on the dropdown list.

 

 

Message to Ola. You are great and you are not alone.

Dear Friends,

On the morning of October 24, 2009, as people rallied in thousands of cities across the planet, a young woman named Ola walked alone to the center… of Babylon, Iraq, took a deep breath, and unfurled a 350 banner, joining a worldwide call for climate action.

Ola had worked for weeks to try and convince her friends to join her, but in Iraq, taking action on climate change is a risk few are willing to take. Ola’s was one the smallest actions that day, but one of the most powerful.

And she didn’t stop there. Determined to make a difference, Ola overcame even more challenges to go to Copenhagen for the UN climate negotiations in December and call for action on behalf of millions of people in Iraq and around the world.

Unfortunately, politicians in Copenhagen didn’t share Ola’s bravery and failed to deliver a fair, ambitious and binding international climate treaty steering us towards safety below 350ppm.

So Ola went back to work.

I spoke to Ola on the phone last week, and she relayed the news that she’s found a group of friends who were inspired by her actions, and together they’re planning an event for the Global Work Party this October 10th, one of nearly a thousand now registered at 350.org.

But we’re not waiting until October to Get To Work–we’re starting now.

350 Appeal for ACTION Last week April 2010 and then on 10/10/10

Dear friends, 

If you’re receiving this letter, that means you’re part of a select group of climate leaders.

That’s because the only people getting this email are organizers of past events with 350.org–and those who have signed up early to host an event this year.  You are the heart and soul of the global 350 network, and now we need your help to really jump-start this movement.

Here’s the plan: we’re just about ready ready to kick off our big “Get To Work” campaign for sustainable solutions in our communities–to start to model what a future at 350 will look like.  This effort will culminate with a huge “Global Work Party” on 10/10/10, when people all over the world will work on (and celebrate) their efforts to build the green future — we’ll install solar panels, plant community gardens, paint bike lanes, and on and on. And we’ll show our politicians that we’re sick of waiting for action: we’re getting to work and so should they.

But we can’t wait until 10/10/10 to get to work.  That’s why we’re helping to coordinate a week of “Climate MeetUps”–short and casual meetings we can use to make big plans for the coming year.  These MeetUps will take place in communities all over the world during the last week in April–the week after Earth Day and a big Peoples Climate Summit in Bolivia.

Why April?  Well, the scale of climate crisis demands immediate and sustained action–and  convening a local organizing team early on will help ensure that your local community will be able to pull off an amazing event for 10/10/10.

It’s easy to host a Climate MeetUp–and we’ll help you with everything you need to know to make it happen.  If you can help push this movement forward by hosting a MeetUp, click here.

www.350.org/meetup

You don’t need to do much to organize an event like this–here’s the basic plan for a local Climate MeetUp:

1) Pick out a time (sometime during the last week in April) and place (like your living room or a local cafe) and register your MeetUp on 350.org so that others can find it. Posting your event publicly on 350.org is a great way to meet new allies in your community as you make plans for the future.

2) Let people know about your event.  You can keep it small or make it large. We’ll even send you a sample e-mail you can send around to friends, neighbors, co-workers, and even a few people who have never been involved with climate action before.

3) Host your MeetUp!  We’ll provide a basic meeting agenda, some questions to get the conversation going, and a few recommendations for videos you can watch online–including a special message from Bill McKibben and the 350.org team.

4) Make some plans for the year ahead, and report back to 350.org–we’ll take the stories and ideas from MeetUps and share them with hundreds of thousands of people around the world. 

That’s it!  It’s a pretty basic plan, but the ripple effects of a successful first meeting can be huge.

I’m the web guy at 350.org, and in the past few days I’ve taken some time to gather information about the nearly 10,000 events we’ve helped coordinate around the world in the past couple of years. Fascinating patterns have emerged from all of this data.  One of the most striking conclusions is that organizers who started planning their events more than four months in advance had higher attendance, greater political impact, and stronger local coalitions committed to sustained climate action.  The numbers don’t lie: it pays to start early.

Every great project can draw its roots back to its first meetings, where its founding members gathered in homes, coffeeshops, libraries, and classrooms.  It’s a chance to have a good conversation, build local connections, and make big plans for the future of your community.

We hope you’ll join the effort and host a local meetup:

http://www.350.org/meetup

Onwards,

Jon Warnow and the rest of the 350.org team

Tell your doubting friends about -

 CLIMATE CERTAINTIES (Guardian  5/2/2010)

There is no reasonable doubt about the following -

so responsible people demand action now,before it is too late.

1 Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are rising.
Measured in parts per million   (ppm), the figure stood at 28oppm
before the industrial revolution and is now 387ppm, the highest
 for at least 650,000 years. It rises at about 2ppm each year.
 The rise is down to   human activity, mostly the burning of
fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. 

2 Carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases such as methane,
 trap heat in the   atmosphere. Known as the greenhouse effect,
this principle was identified in 1824.

  3 The Earth is warming. The last decade was the warmest
on record and 2009 the second   warmest year, according to Nasa.
 The eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001.
 Temperatures have risen by 0.2C per decade, over the past 30 years.
Average globaltemperatures have increased by o.8C since 1880.

  4 The warming is unusual and not down to natural variation.
 Study after study has shown that warming over the last 50 years
 is unprecedented in the last few centuries, and probably longer.
While the Earth’s climate has always warmed and cooled, the only
plausible explanation for recent warming is human emissions
ofgreenhouse gases.

  Some questions remain. While there is general agreement
that human activity is warming the planet, exactly how this will
 continue is unclear. Last week scientists found that water
 vapour has a larger role than expected in buffering temperature rise.
 The scientific basis for political action is settled,
the wider science of climate change is not.

  David Adam

 

GET CO2 back down to 350ppm is the only rational decision.