350 Updates

350 at the Indian Youth Summit on Climate Change

Govind
Posted by Govind - 10/06/08, 3:50am
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Photo: Members of the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) performing a body-350 at IYSoCC.

The Indian Youth Summit on Climate Change (IYSoCC) that was held in the cyber city of Hyderabad has been a landmark event in shaping the Indian youth vision for a better world. Not only was the objective of raising awareness and building consensus on climate change achieved but the summit also acted as the catalyst for a chain reaction of launching the different Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) chapters all across the country.

350 was accepted and adopted at the summit and also included in the Indian Youth Charter on Climate - a policy paper that was the outcome of the summit.

 
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Cookies and Climate Change

Will Bates
Posted by Will Bates - 10/04/08, 12:00pm

For a somewhat more lighthearted Saturday take on the significance of 350, here's a guest post by our friend Roger Shamel of the Global Warming Education Network, GWEN, in Massachusetts, USA:

GWEN teamed up with 350VT on September 27th to participate in a 350 awareness event at Battery Park in Burlington, VT, USA.  The event was a success!

We were able to express the importance of CO2 concentrations in our atmosphere with cookies!  There were cookies baked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit to represent what the Earth looks like when CO2 levels are held to 350ppm (the suggested level in order to save our planet from the terrible effects of greenhouse gases).  To counter that, there was also a batch of cookies baked at 500 degrees Fahrenheit.  These showed people where our Earth is currently headed, unless we stop using coal to make electricity, and switch our cars from gasoline to electric hybrids in the next 10 years!

Roger reported after the event that, "all of the 350-degree cookies were eaten, while only part of one 500-degree cookie was eaten."

If you weren't convinced before, my guess is that now you're on board.  Now who wants to prove how delicious cookies can be baked with a solar oven?

 
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350 Action Spotlight: Disko Bay, Greenland

Anonymous
Posted by Anonymous - 10/01/08, 10:09am

Photo: 350s on the beach of Qeqertartsuaq. By David Noble.

Last week we wrote about the expedition of artists, activists and scientists heading to Greenland's Disko Bay to observe, discuss, and draw inspiration from a changing Arctic environment. Yesterday, the Cape Farewell passengers staged their own 350 action on the shores of of Qeqertartsuaq, spelling out the number with pieces of ice they gathered on the beach. The words below are from David Noble of Canadian company 2DegreesC who helped pull together the action, and are cross-posted from the Cape Farewell Blog.

We just passed the 48-hour mark of our 10-day journey aboard the Grigory Mikheev.

 
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Indian Youth Climate Summit Recap

Will Bates
Posted by Will Bates - 09/30/08, 2:37pm

It's been a longtime coming, but now we have some video footage of the Indian Youth Climate Summit that took place in Hyderabad, India in August.  This video is a nice introduction to some of our friends and allies in India...

 

 
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Ecuador votes to grant rights to nature

Anonymous
Posted by Anonymous - 09/29/08, 4:29pm

"It sounds like a stunt by the San Francisco City Council.", wrote the LA Times last week, but no, this weekend's groundbreaking vote took place not in the progressive U.S. city (which happens to be home to 350.org), but in the small Andean country of Ecuador.

On Sunday, two thirds of Ecuador's citizens voted to approve a new Constitution, which notably includes a set of unprecedented articles that guarantee 'inalienable rights to nature'. The articles appear to be the first of their kind, and have sparked a global conversation amongst reporters and bloggers. Many are debating and doubting the long term political significance and ability to enforce the articles, in a country where the economy relies heavily on resource extraction. Yet few deny that the language of the new Constitution is something very powerful and novel in a world where most countries's lawmakers have delineated nature as something to be owned and dominated, rather than honored and given rights similar to those enjoyed by humans. For more on the decision, click below.

 
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Riding to 350

Phil Aroneanu
Posted by Phil Aroneanu - 09/26/08, 2:13pm

I like to ride my bicycle. That's one of the reasons why I decided to bike more than 300 miles over the course of a week, from New York City to Washington DC. But it's not the most important reason; Climate Ride 2008 organized 120 riders from across the United States to raise awareness about climate change and bring our message to the Capitol in the best (and most fun) way we know how.

 
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September Update

Anonymous
Posted by Anonymous - 09/26/08, 8:43am

 

Click here if you are having trouble viewing this video.

 

 
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Counting Our Prayers

Will Bates
Posted by Will Bates - 09/25/08, 7:04am

“The two most pressing issues of our time are inseparably linked. The continual warming of the globe will take the living conditions for the world's bottom billion people from serious to critical. We need to act. Say a prayer. Ring the bells!” - Jonathan Denn, founder of countingprayers.org

There are many ways to unite the movements to fight climate change and end extreme poverty.  Over the last few weeks our friend Jon Denn has been working diligently to create a new online platform to invite prayers to solve both crises.  Since 23 September of 2007 countingprayers.org has been an online hub for The Prayer Vigil to End Extreme Poverty.  This Counting Prayer reads, “The world now has the means to end extreme poverty, we pray we will have the will.”

Now, countingprayers.org has launched the tools to pledge prayers against global warming as well.  Click here to add your prayers to the count.

 
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