Our friends in the Chitral disctrict of Northwest Pakistan, from the Chitral Association for Mountain Area Tourism (CAMAT), just wrote in to let us know about their plans for 10/10/10. It's quite a story.
First of all, check out the beautiful photo from their event on 24 October last year:
These folks are in the village of Booni—far, far into the Hindu Kush mountains, near the border with Afghanistan. Like most people throughout the developing world, the people of Booni have had little to nothing to do with causing the climate crisis. Yet, they understand it's threat, and they were, and are, prepared to take action.
Then, this happened…
(Photo by Chitral 350 organizer Uddin Shams)
The world was shocked to see the images from all across Pakistan as it was ravaged by floods in July and August—with thousands dead and millions impacted—and it started with flash floods in the mountains, including right there in Booni, as the glacier above the village broke from the weight of water pooling up behind. Read a full story of the flash flood by Uddin here: https://chitraltourism.blogspot.com.
Yet the despite the wreckage, and despite Pakistan's ongoing efforts to overcome such disaster, Booni is prepared to Get to Work on 10/10/10! Here is what Uddin reports by email…
It is just to formally inform you that CAMAT (Chitral Association for Mountain Area Tourism) will celebrate climate change day on 10/10/10 with school students in the Booni village of northern Chitral. The village has particularly suffered a seroius flood due to the breaking of Booni Zom glacier, which means climate change has had practical negative impacts on the community here. We will send you both reports and picture of the event. We'll have speech from the students and professional people to the gathering of students, teachers and parents.
If it seemed vague as to why people raised banners saying "350 = Survival" the past years, perhaps this story can help us understand what's really at stake.
We will not accept a world in which people must face such threats—the world of 390 ppm CO2, as today, or higher. That's why we are getting to work on 10/10/10, enacting the practical work and advocating for the political work that can get us back below 350 ppm. It's tremendously inspiring to know we'll be doing so in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Booni!