The UNEP supported South Asia Youth Environment Network (SAYEN) recently hosted a three day Indian National Youth Meet in Ahmedabad, India. The Meet, called to envision the next five year plan for SAYEN was inaugurated on the 2nd of October; the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the biggest proponent of peace, non-violence and sustainable development.

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed", or so declared the Mahatma decades ago. Today, long after he's gone, we are realizing the significance of his statement. "Be the change you want to see in the world", he already gave a message to all of us!

350 was introduced during the Meet to all the youth participating from different parts of the country and was a target setting experience for many.

Thanks to everyone's help, the campaign to send Obama and McCain thousand of invitations to the UN Climate Meetings is exploding: we have over 17,000 invitations so far! Bill is currently on the road drumming up support for the campaign. Check out this recent profile on Treehugger.com about his trip to England:

"The most important number of your lifetime" is how George Spyros titled Bill McKibben's campaign earlier this year. Since 350.org was launched this clear number, referring to the target of parts per million of Co2 in the atmosphere, has ignited the imaginations of people around the world. Bill McKibben took time this weekend to bring his message to the UK, where an audience of 500+ green activists at the Schumacher Conference listened in rapt attention to his powerfully motivating speech. The image above shows Bill McKibben with his friend Satish Kumar of Schumacher College enjoying the verbal dexterity of poet Matt Harvey. Click over the page to hear Bill's message.

The power of turning up in person
McKibben started out by explaining his concern about "the tension between acting locally and acting globally". Travelling to the UK to appear at a one day conference might seem extravagant in terms of emissions, but the impact of imparting his passion and insight in person to a UK audience would, he hopes, far outweigh one return flight across the Atlantic.

Thank heavens for the "average citizen."

After approximately 4 million debates over the past year, someone finally asked the right and real question about climate change. Ingrid Jackson, over in Section C of the audience in Tuesday night's debate, didn't ask if the candidates thought global warming was real, and she didn't even ask what they would do to fight it. "[W]e saw that Congress moved pretty fast in the face of an economic crisis," she said. "I want to know what you would do within the first two years to make sure that Congress moves fast as far as environmental issues, like climate change and green jobs."

That's the question. Every thinking person -- even, at this late date, the current resident of the White House -- understands that climate change is real.

You too, can ask the candidates an important question by joining our campaign to invite Obama and McCain to the upcoming UN Climate Meetings in Poland this December -- click here to visit our new rotating globe featuring invitations from around the world.