350 Updates

Gore Speaks, and He Speaks of 350

Bill McKibben
Posted by Bill McKibben - 12/12/08, 6:44am

Friends—

Forty five minutes ago Al Gore set the new bottom line for the climate debate—thanks to your hard work for the last year.

Giving the climactic speech at the Poznan global warming conference, Gore set the new bottom line for action on global warming, right where we've been suggesting: 350 parts per million. The old goal of 450 parts per million is "inadequate," he said. We "need to toughen that goal to 350 parts per million."

The line, which drew the longest applause of the day, was a remarkable repudiation of established targets that have driven the climate debate for more than a decade. Now the world's leading scientific authority on global warming and the world's leading political authority on global warming have said the same thing: 350 is the target we have to hit. Let's get to it.

Thanks for all your good work.

-Bill

 
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Youth are leading the charge for survival

Will Bates
Posted by Will Bates - 12/12/08, 4:19am

A quick update from an exciting morning at the UN climate negotations...

Youth from all around the world have been running around the UN climate talks in Poland for the last 2 days rapidly building support for what has been termed the survival pledge: commiting country delegations to an international climate treaty that will "safeguard the survival of all countries and peoples." That might sound like a very basic principle -- and it is. Youth and many countries, particularly AOSIS (the Alliance of Small Island States who are most at risk from sea level rise), recognize that the negotiations have not been sufficient to guarantee universal national survival in the face of climate change. Pretty nuts, right?

Fortunately, thanks to the hard work of the hundreds of youth dashing around gathering pledges, handing out "survival" cards for delegations, and requesting mention of this new principle in speeches, this morning the COP (Conference of the Parties) president included the survival principle in his presentation of the draft text concluding from the conferece.

We will still await the outcome of the final days of the negotiations to see if the principle is fully adopted in writing. Yet, this morning's speech from the COP president has created a wave of excitement already.

Why is this so significant? It is clear to youth and to the most vulnerable nations that in order to ensure the survival of all countries and peoples we must aim for bolder targets such as 350 ppm co2. The actions taking place here in Poznan are setting the stage for a new year of movement building towards 350. Get ready.

The voices and support from citizens around the world adding important momentum to the work of the young people carrying this message forward here in Poland. Please add your voice and sign on to the survival petition here: http://www.350.org/survival

More news to come soon.

 
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Uniting Around a Green Recovery

Bill McKibben
Posted by Bill McKibben - 12/11/08, 5:51pm

Just in case you thought Poland was the only place where activists were worrying about justice for everyone in the greenhouse era, good news today of a widespread call in the United States for building a green economy that's also a fair economy. Sixty groups from around the U.S. signed on to a letter to Barack Obama's environmental team asking that:

As you draft and debate proposals to stimulate the American economy, we strongly urge you to make the recovery package as green and as equitable as possible. We propose these principles as benchmarks against which all stimulus proposals – indeed, all energy-related proposals coming out of the new administration and Congress – should be measured. The stimulus must:

- Maximize investments in the transition to a green, inclusive economy.

- Focus on fixing, improving efficiency, and lowering energy costs for our existing infrastructure – our buildings, roads and bridges, transmission grid, public transit systems, and manufacturing plants – rather than on new development.
Promote high quality, family-supporting jobs here at home.

- Provide opportunities for under-served communities to access these high quality jobs, through investments in training programs and partnerships that promote career ladders and "pathways out of poverty."

- Drive funding to states, cities, tribes and communities, and allow them some freedom to decide where and how they invest in their own economies.

Meanwhile, the team on the receiving end of that lobbying got clearer today too, and it includes some real champions of the environment: former EPA secretary Carol Browner, Nobel prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, Lisa Jackson from New Jersey, and Los Angeles deputy mayor Nancy Sutley. This is a very different team than the one that has 'managed' energy policy for the last 8 years in the United States, and the news seemed to encourage delegates from around the world here in Poland.

 
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