I was sitting in my local cafe this morning having a cup of joe and a bagel. I grabbed a copy of the New York Times and opened it up to the Opinions section to check out the latest tirades. As I began reading Thomas Friedman’s weekly piece, I realized that the article was about our friends at the Indian Youth Climate Network and their Climate Solutions Road Tour that 350 organizer Govind covered on this blog.
Imagine — me sitting in Washington, DC reading about my friends and climate activists half a world away — in one of the world’s most respected media outlets. This is what a youth climate network should look like: positive, linked, powerful and fun! Needless to say, all the other customers at the cafe were slightly taken aback when I jumped out of my chair with excitement.
While the Road to Solutions is over, keep your eyes peeled — this car may be coming your way. And don’t forget to check out the India Climate Solutions Tour blog for a recap of the amazing journey. And read Thomas Friedman’s Yes They Could, So They Did.
The second nugget this Sunday is from Dr. Chris Field, a top Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientist. Along with Dr. Jim Hansen and many others, he has begun pointing to recent climactic events as evidence that change is happening much mroe quickly than was predicted. In a speech in Chicago yesterday, he said that future temperatures “will be beyond anything” predicted.
As top climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, among many other climate experts, has stated, <350 parts per million CO2 int he atmosphere is the only safe level. Unless we take action now to ensure that a good agreement is negotiated this year in Copenhagen, cllimate feedback loops will continue to ravage the planet.
The solutions are out there, as our friends in India remind us; now it’s time to get to work!