24 October 2009

The science is clear: global warming is happening faster than ever and humans are responsible. Global warming is caused by releasing what are called greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The most common greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. Many of the activities we do every day like turn the lights on, cook food, or heat or cool our homes rely on energy sources like coal and oil that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. This is a major problem because global warming destabilizes the delicate balance that makes life on this planet possible. Just a few degrees in temperature can completely change the world as we know it, and threaten the lives of millions of people around the world. But don't give up hope! You can help stop global warming by taking action here at 350.org.

350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide--measured in "Parts Per Million" in our atmosphere. 350 PPM--it's the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change.

We need an international agreement to reduce carbon emissions fast. The United Nations is working on a treaty, which is supposed to be completed in December of 2009 at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. But the current plans for the treaty are much too weak to get us back to safety. This treaty needs to put a high enough price on carbon that we stop using so much. It also needs to make sure that poor countries are ensured a fair chance to develop.

Make no mistake--getting back to 350 means transforming our world. It means building solar arrays instead of coal plants, it means planting trees instead of clear-cutting rainforests, it means increasing efficiency and decreasing our waste. Getting to 350 means developing a thousand different solutions--all of which will become much easier if we have a global treaty grounded in the latest science and built around the principles of equity and justice. To get this kind of treaty, we need a movement of people who care enough about our shared global future to get involved and make their voices heard.

Only if we're loud enough.

If we can make this number known across the planet, that mere fact will exert some real pressure on negotiators. We need people to understand that 350 marks either success or failure for these climate negotiations. It's not an easy fight—the other side has the power of the fossil fuel industry. But we think the voice of ordinary people will be heard, if it's loud enough. That's all of our job—to make enough noise that we can't be easily ignored.

Dr. James Hansen, of NASA, the United States' space agency, has been researching global warming longer than just about anyone else. He was the first to publicly testify before the U.S. Congress, in June of 1988, that global warming was real. He and his colleagues have used both real-world observation, computer simulation, and mountains of data about ancient climates to calculate what constitutes dangerous quantities of carbon in the atmosphere. The Bush Administration has tried to keep Hansen and his team from speaking publicly, but their analysis has been widely praised by other scientists, and by experts like Nobel Prize winner Al Gore. The full text of James Hansen's paper about 350 can be found here.

Yes—America has been producing more CO₂ than any other country, and leads the industrialized world in per capita emissions. Even though China now produces as much CO₂ annually, the US still produces many times more carbon per person than China, India, and most other countries. And America has blocked meaningful international action for many years. That's why many of us at 350.org have worked hard to change U.S. policy—we staged more than 2,000 demonstrations in all 50 states in 2007, and helped spur Congress to pass the first real laws to reduce CO₂. Now we need help from around the world to persuade both the U.S. and the U.N. to continue the process.

China and India and the rest of the developing world need to be involved. But since per capita they use far less energy than the West, and have been doing so for much shorter periods of time, and are using fossil fuels to pull people out of poverty, their involvement needs to be different. The West is going to have to use some tiny percentage of the wealth it built up filling the atmosphere with carbon to transfer technology north to south so that these countries can meet their legitimate development needs without burning all their coal. A great resource for thinking about these questions is the paper prepared by the Greenhouse Rights Network, which can be found here.

350 translates into many languages--numerals are among the few things most people around the world recognize. More to the point, 350 tells us what we need to do. Far from boring, it's the most important number in the world. It contains, rightly understood, the recipe for a very different world, one that moves past cheap fossil fuel to more sensible technologies, more closely-knit communities, and a more equitable global society.

Climate science is a rapidly evolving field. A few years ago, climate campaigners hoped that goals of 450ppm or a 2 degree Celsius rise in temperature might be "safe levels" for the world to shoot for. We wish they were right--it would make the world's job a lot easier.

But, the latest data and climate models have convinced scientists that that these other targets are missing the mark, that 350 is the upper boundary for a safe climate.

For many people around the world, this comes as no surprise--as the glaciers melt and the forests burn, it's clear that the effects of climate change are being felt right now. The scientific models are only affirming what we see all around us, and the longer we're above 350 the longer we're all in the danger zone.

People and organizations all over the world uniting around the 350 goal. In every corner of the planet, we're coming together around a common call to action. And it's working.

The 350 rallying cry is a simple message that can cut through the static, hold our leaders accountable, and motivate our planet to swift and bold action. Take a look at our Messengers page and our Blog for politicians, scientists, and other important supporters getting behind the 350 target.

The timing here is crucial--there is a narrow window when we can have the most influence in international climate politics. Too early and we're irrelevant, too late and we've missed our chance to have a real impact.

Though the final climate meeting in Copenhagen doesn't take place until December, governments will be finalizing positions before the meeting takes place. Late October may well be our best chance we have before countries set everyone that negotiates for the United Nations climate talks will get their final orders.

With creative actions happening all over the globe, and photographs of those events appearing online, in the media, and on politicians' desks, we will change what these negotiators think they can achieve right before they make the important decisions of the UN treaty. Right now most of them know the science of 350ppm, but they don't think it is politically possible. On October 24, we are going to show them that not only is it possible, but it is what everyone all over the world is demanding they do.

It's true, there are lots of organizations and individuals working hard to solve the climate crisis. This is great news--it means that we don't really need to build a movement from scratch because it's already bubbling up all over the world.

Our hope is that we can shine a spotlight on the work of existing organizations, highlighting everyone's incredible work and knitting these many efforts together for a powerful and unified call to action--a call that is global, scientific, and specific. By providing a common platform with the 350 target, we can help to stitch together a whole that is truly greater than the sum of its parts, a diverse movement that speaks with one collective voice.

First, let's define the term: CO2e is a calculation used by climate scientists to account for other greenhouse gases--like methane--that contribute climate change. It converts those gases to "equivalent carbon dioxide," and is often used by scientists and policy makers to offer a single metric that can be used for all greenhouse gases.

The initial catalyst for the 350 campaign was James Hansen's landmark paper. "Target CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?" In this paper, Dr. Hansen identifies 350 ppm as the upper boundary for CO2 concentrations -- not CO2-e.

Hansen focused on CO2 as the key greenhouse gas because it is the most prevalent in our atmosphere, has the longest life-cycle, meaning we'll be dealing with the consequences of our actions today for over 100 years, and it is most integrated into industrial economies. In other words, cutting CO2 is the key challenge in combatting global warming, and will be the key feature of any international climate treaty.

Since 350.org formed a year ago, two things have lead 350 supporters to take other greenhouse gases into account and start seeing 350 ppm in terms of CO2e. First, we've seen the impacts of climate change happening even more quickly than predicted. Just in 2009 there have been increased floods across Southeast Asia, a key ice bridge in the arctic melted years ahead of schedule, and places like Australia continue to be ravaged by drought. Scientists are increasingly focused on the role of potent, short-term greenhouse gases, such as Methane (which is 25 times as potent as CO2—though there's far less of it). As we think about how to combat climate change in the short term, taking these gases into account makes more and more sense.

Second, as the 350 movement has grown more and more of the groups involved, particularly groups in developing countries, do work that focuses on greenhouse gases other than CO2. These include large scale meat production or improper waste management, both leading sources of methane, industrial production of CFCs and other dangerous chemical pollutants, and more. Many of these non-carbon pollution sources have profound local impacts on humans and the environment, as well as being contributers to climate change.

These considerations have lead 350.org to see the 350 ppm target not only in terms of CO2, but CO2e. On a technical level, this becomes a more ambitious target, incorporating other greenhouse gases. On a practical level, it signifies the same priorities 350 has embodied all along. Any climate target lower than where we are right now--be it 350 CO2e, 350 CO2, or anything else--represents a transformative shift in how the world operates. Targets of 350 CO2 and 350 CO2e--both greenhouse gas concentrations significantly lower than current levels--have the same essential policy implications: we will STOP burning coal and other fossil fuel and we will START rolling out clean energy and other sustainable development strategies around the world.

Either way you slice it, in terms of CO2 or CO2-e, 350 is the mark of a completely new direction -- and the movement that will get us there.