I feel remiss in not having written about the 10/10/10 Global Work Party events, but I'm a neophyte as far as organized events go. I'm still learning and getting plugged in to the pulse of what's happening out there.
Today's events are the culmination of a call to action by 350.org, founded by environmental activist Bill McKibben to raise awareness about the need for us to restore our atmosphere, rapidly, to less than 350 parts per million of CO2.
This is regarded by scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments as the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Already we are at 392 ppm and moving toward tipping points and irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from melting permafrost.
This little video animation makes the point succinctly:
Since our policymakers lack the political will to take the necessary actions in a timely fashion, today's events constitute a grassroots demonstration (thousands of local events worldwide) that says to governments, Look! This is what we're doing. It's time for you to get to work too!
The closest thing to local that we have going on today are a variety of events sponsored by the SUNY Fredonia Campus Climate Challenge. Buffalo is hosting a bicycle workshop, for volunteers to rebuild bicycles and get them back out into the community.
And by the way, if you don't read anything else all year, you MUST read McKibben's new book, Eaarth
. It is an absolutely essential guide to the new era we find ourselves in. Old habits die hard, but they do not work anymore and we must have the courage to change. Not the kind of rah rah campaign sloganeering change that swept up so many people in the last election, but the real kind that means each of us has to start behaving differently.
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