Tomorrow, October 24th, our friends over at 350.ORG have organized the biggest day of global political action in the history of our gasping planet - the International Day of Climate Action. World Streets thinks this is a great and practical activist tool which we are pleased to support; we invite you to check it out right here and perhaps get involved too. The planet needs every one of us.
Backdrop:Read Bill McKibben's recent blog post, "The Science of 350, the Most Important Number on the Planet" - here 
On October 24, millions of people across the globe will participate in the most widespread day of environmental action in history, attending over 4,500 simultaneous events in more than 170 countries. Organized by the grassroots campaign 350.org, participants are mobilizing to urge world leaders to support a clear solution to the climate crisis: reducing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million.
350 is the most important number in the world--scientists have told us that it's the most carbon dioxide we can have in the atmosphere, and now we're making sure everyone knows. We'll be taking photos from all the events, projecting them on the big screens in New York's Times Square, and delivering them to major media outlets and hundreds of world leaders in the coming weeks. The combined noise from these events will ensure that world leaders who gather next month at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen to create the world's new plan on climate change will hear our call. They will know that when negotiating the fate of our planet, there is a passionate movement out there which will hold them accountable.
To help you take part in tomorrow's international day of climate action, they are:* Lifting public awareness on the need for an international climate treaty to reach 350
* Assembling a coalition of hundreds of organizations committed to this vision of a more sustainable world
* Connecting you with others in your community and across the planet who are building this movement
* Providing on-line resources and tools that make pulling together an event easy
* Linking your October 24 event with hundreds of other actions at iconic places around the world
* Leveraging the day of action for meaningful political change
From capitol cities to the melting slopes of Mount Everest, even underwater on dying coral reefs—people are holding rallies and visual demonstrations aimed at focusing attention on the 350 target. Highlights include over 200 events across China; major rallies at iconic landmarks like the Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu, the Great Barrier Reef; 350 scuba divers holding an underwater protest in the Maldives; 200 events across the Middle East; and 350 Masaii children hosting a traditional dance on their parched fields in Kenya.
Photos and video footage of events all over the world will be broadcast on giant screens at a culminating event in New York City’s Times Square at 3:50 pm (EDT) on October 24. Footage and photos will also be available for media use at 350.org.
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This positing represents our action participation and support of this great project idea. Have a look and consider how you might wish to join in or otherwise put this network to work. * Click here for full details: http://www.350.org/plan
* To find an event in your area - http://www.350.org/map
* To organise your own event - Check out their 9 step action plan - http://www.350.org/9steps
* World Streets support action page: http://www.350.org/node/11209
* Car Free Day drum band in Kaohsiung – we're behind you Bill
Friday, October 23, 2009
24 October 2009, International Day of Climate Action
World Streets on-line support of www.350.org through 2010
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dear eric
ReplyDeleteour colleagues, cycling group form the federal university, ufsc, where i do my doctorate, are organising a bike ride for the 24th
regards, g
*****************************
Giselle Noceti Ammon Xavier UDESC CEFID
Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina
Rua Paschoal Simone, 358 Florianópolis/SC Brasil 88080 350
Celular/Mobile +55 (48) 9101 1783 Skype gisellexavier
Other E-mail ciclobrasil@udesc.br
Bill McKibben, Middletown CT USA
ReplyDeleteSaturday, 24 October, 2009 05:30
Friends,
I can hardly believe my eyes.
16 hours ago, citizens in New Zealand gathered before dawn next to a wind turbine on a mountaintop. As local elders said prayers to bless the global event, banners and signs were held high to to greet the planet's first rays of sunlight on this most incredible of days.
As the sun continues across the planet we've been receiving photos and video of rallies in Ethiopia, bike rides in Wellington, SCUBA divers in Australia, organizers planting 350 trees in Thailand, hundreds of students marching in India and Nepal and Mongolia. And we're getting reports from 350.org offices around the world that the phones are ringing off the hook with calls from the media who want to cover the story.
The day is just beginning and already it's larger, more powerful, and so much more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. I've been a writer my entire life and yet words truly cannot describe what you have accomplished already. To truly grasp today, please stay tuned to our website as more and more photos come in from across the planet, and especially our evolving photo slideshow.
And the best news of all? The day has just begun!
Bill McKibben, Middletown CT USA
P.S. Have a photo to contribute? Just send a decent-quality picture to photos@350.org and make the subject "City, Country" and make sure that the body of the e-mail contains a description of the photo, any necessary photographer credits, and any other information you think we'll need. So many thanks.
Dear friend,
ReplyDeleteToday in New York was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
As I stood in Times Square and watched images flood in from every corner of the world on the big screens, I finally saw what a climate movement looked like -- and it looked diverse and creative and beautiful.
Please head to www.350.org and spend a few minutes watching the pictures. We need you to feel the strength of this movement, and to see how creative and committed this movement is, all across the planet.
It was so sweet to watch the day move around the globe, with thousands upon thousands of pictures appearing, sometimes a dozen a minute! There were photos of climbers high on the glaciers of Switzerland holding 350 banners, of bicycle parades from Copenhagen to San Francisco, of organizers in Papua New Guinea beating their church gong 350 times while churches in Barcelona rang their bells 350 times. Photos of activists protesting coal plants and celebrating wind farms, of students in 350 shirts repairing their flooded homes in Manila, and of thousands of people marching in the streets of Bogota and Kathmandu. Photos of people from different races and classes, religions and nationalities, coming together around a simple and powerful number to save our planet. Thousands took to the streets in Addis Ababa and Mexico City; we had huge parades in places like Togo and Seattle.
You were by far the biggest news story on Google, on CNN, on the front pages of newspapers around the planet. And these pictures were seen around the world, in newspapers from Beijing to Boston, on TV stations from New Delhi to New York, and on blogs, social networks, and websites across the internet.
Together, we've shown the world that a global climate movement is possible and set a bold new agenda for the upcoming United Nations Climate Meetings in Copenhagen this December. The 350 target is the new bottom line for climate action and world leaders must now meet that target.
We thought we would be tired after many sleepless nights planning this day, but in fact we're more energized than ever. We're preparing to deliver the photos and messages from your events to every national delegation to the United Nations on Monday, and planning to hand the photos to high-level ministers at upcoming climate negotiations in Barcelona and Copenhagen. So if you haven't uploaded your best pictures from the event yet, please do so right away by sending us an e-mail to photos@350.org with your photos attached, with your City, Country as the subject and the body as the action description.
Thank you more than we can possibly say. We'll (of course) be asking you to do lots more in the weeks ahead -- but today, lean back, relax, look through pictures at 350.org, and savor your accomplishment. You were part of what many journalists called "the most widespread day of political action the world has ever seen."
Together with millions around the world, you made a real difference already -- get ready to make much more in the days, weeks and months to come.
With hope,
Bill McKibben and the whole 350.org Team