How does one travel in a 350 world?  Arne Reuter has one solution.

Arne, from Germany, has just launched the 350 Sailing Challenge - an attempt to fund and race a 350 sailboat in one of the around-the-world sailing regattas.  His goals are many, but they all seem right on target with the challenges of 350 we have moving forward.  One of those goals is in demonstrating that sailing around the world is hard work - it's not like taking a cruise. But that's ok with Arne, because it's also many times more rewarding.  

Additional goals include educating the public with speaking tours, getting climate science into the media surrounding the race, and (we did not put him up to this we swear) auctioning the boat at the end of the trip, donating the money to 350 campaigning. Thanks, Arne!

If you would like to support Arne in realizing his dream, sign up on his facebook page here and he will be in touch.  If that's not the kind of support you are interested in, then take inspiration from his ambition to get to work promoting climate solutions and get to work with us, too.  

Arne's idea, and hundreds of others coming into our inboxes all the time, make us incredibly excited for this coming October, when we'll once again bring all that energy together on a single day for a really powerful, global story.  Get ready!

 

Every few weeks, it's someone's turn at 350 HQ to monitor the influx of emails to our general account.  It's not an easy job to keep up, but I'm especially grateful to be the one with that special task right now, as ideas are literally pouring in for the 10/10 Global Work Party after our initial call to action just a few days ago.  It gives me great hope to see that this movement is so creative, committed, and ready to get to work this year all around the world.  Here are just a few ideas coming in, either for the big day itself, or to generate momentum in the lead-up:

- get a bike-to-school and bike-to-work program started for students and workers in Jakarta, Indonesia

- going door-to-door to help people understand their energy use and weatherize their homes in cold climates

- bringing a 350ppm resolution to local city government

- friendly competitions amongst neighbors about eating locally, making sustainable improvements to your home, transporting your family sustainably

- hosting a garden work party - and get the White House organic garden going too!

... and here are some great work party-style events that happened on 24 October - check out the photos and write to us with your plans, or possible collaborations:

There's always interesting news coming out of the Maldives. Today, in a design blog, I learned that the Maldives government is embarking on construction of "floating islands" as one of their moves to combat sea level rise. Floating islands may be familiar to you, as they're featured in Dubai. The interesting fact is while Dubai has made islands in the desert, the planned construction in the Maldives will help house inhabitants of an exising island, alread coping with climate impacts.

Learn more here.

One of our great organizers in the midwestern USA Paul Thompson raced in America's biggest cross country ski race last month, carrying the 350 message. He's fast--but anyone who passed him knew the most important number in the world!
 

After a month-long retreat in the mountainous US state of Vermont, and following much reflection, listening and movement-storming with allies & organizers from around the world, we're excited to share our new plans for 2010 -- and can't wait to learn what you think! Bill's letter below is about to go out to our entire list -- make sure you're signed up for more exciting updates in 2010!

Dear Friends,

Well, no one said it was going to be easy.
 
Last year, thanks to many of you, we built up enormous momentum for climate solutions. The global day of rallies you pulled off on October 24th turned out to "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history," according to CNN, with 5200 actions in 181 countries.
 
And in Copenhagen that translated into 117 countries--most of the world's nations--supporting a tough 350 target. 
 
But it didn't translate into political victory. The biggest polluters wouldn't go along. So we still have work to do.
 
In fact, our slogan for 2010 is "Get To Work." Get to work to start changing our communities, and get to work to make our leaders realize that they actually need to lead. We've sifted through thousands of your emails from all over the world, and come up with an action plan for this year that we think may break the logjam and get us moving. But only, of course, if we act together to make it happen.
 
The first date to mark on your calendar: October 10. Working with our friends at the 10:10 campaign, we're going to make the tenth day of the tenth month of the millennium's tenth year a real starting point for concrete action. We're calling it the 10/10 Global Work Party, and in every corner of the world we hope communities will put up solar panels, insulate homes, erect windmills, plant trees, paint bikepaths, launch or harvest local gardens. We'll make sure the world sees this huge day of effort--and we'll use it to send a simple message to our leaders:  "We're working--what about you? If we can cover the roof of the school with solar panels, surely you can pass the legislation or sign the treaty that will spread our work everywhere, and confront the climate crisis in time." 10/10/10 will take a snapshot of a clean energy future -- the world of 350 ppm -- and show people why it's worth fighting for.  It's not too early to sign up here: www.350.org/oct10
 
Every nation is not created equal in this climate crisis, of course. If we can't get the biggest polluters and the biggest economies to change, then we'll never win. So we're going to focus some particular attention on China, the United States, and India with a Great Power Race--college and university campuses will compete to see who can come up with the most, and the most creative, climate solutions. We hope friendly competition will help governments see that they have a lot to gain by diving into clean energy--and a lot to lose by missing this opportunity.
 
And we'll keep figuring out ways to apply political pressure where it counts--in the U.S. Senate, say, where we're joining a group of our best allies in backing the proposed Cap-and-Dividend approach that would stop letting big polluters pour carbon into the sky for free. In other parts of the world, we'll hold more of the climate leadership workshops that produced so many great leaders last year.
 
And as the next UN conference approaches in Mexico in December, we'll stage the largest piece of public art in the planet's history--a reminder that we have to bring passion to bear along with science and economics if we're going to move this process.

We know, from the calls and emails we've been getting, that people all over the world are ready to go to work. We think this plan can increase the odds of real action. We know that we have no choice. When, years down the road, the next generation asks what we did to save the planet, we want to be able to say: "We rolled up our sleeves and got to work."  There's no guarantee we can beat the rich and powerful interests that we're up against--but thanks to you we've got enough momentum to have a real chance. Let's use it now.

Onwards,

Bill McKibben and the 350.org Team

P.S. We've learned that there's great power in pictures, and so we decided to make an audio slideshow that walks through our plan for 2010 and how we got here.  Please watch it here, and share the piece with family & friends by spreading this link: www.350.org/audio-slideshow. Also, please forward this message far and wide--2010 needs to be a year of unprecedented growth for this movement. 

P.P.S. We want to know what your reaction is to the plan for 2010--will you share your ideas and thoughts with the Global 350 Facebook Community by leaving a comment in the latest message? (www.facebook.com/350.org)

Our friends in Nepal have been busy these last few weeks extending the Nepali youth climate movement to all regions of the country.  The Nepalese Youth for Climate Action emailed this morning explaining that they just wrapped up Western and Far-Western Regional Youth Climate Summits. Abhishek wrote, "Now NYCA has its network almost in every region of Nepal!" And as you can see from the photos below the 350 number is spreading to ever more reaches of the world...

 

Doris Haddock, better  known as Granny D, passed away yesterday at the age of 100--she was a dear friend and a great organizer!    At the age of 90, she walked across the entire continental United States to demand change in the corrupt way America finances its elections--she understood that as long as corporations controlled the process, it would be hard to make progress on any of the issues that matter. A few years later, she and I were arrested in the first civil disobedience about climate change seen in America--we spent an enjoyable day with a few allies locked up in the Capitol Hill jail. I remember what she told me that day: "I'm 93 and I've never been arrested before--I should have started long ago!"   She kept marching and fighting--a couple of years ago she joined many of the 350 organizers for the last mile of a march across her native state of New Hampshire. She is a great hero, and we will carry on her work.

A few weeks ago, while our team was planning out exciting new campaigns for 2010, we heard something and we couldn't quite believe our ears: The World Bank has proposed to give a US$3.75 billion (R29 billion) loan to Eskom to build a number of new dirty coal-fired and nuclear power plants. The World Bank has a history of financing more fossil projects than clean energy, all in the name of reducting poverty. St the same time, Eskom plans to raise electricity rates 25% annually over the next three years. Big polluters are getting cut-rate electricity - the world's cheapest - while the poorest will face the highest rates in the country.

Dozens of South African environmental, community, church, labour, academic and women's organizations have mobilized, but we need your help sending a message to the World Bank that we won't accept a dirty loan.

Click here to say NO to the dirty World Bank loan to Eskom.

Coal is the dirtiest of all energy sources, from mining to transport to burning, releasing toxics into our waterways and contributing potent greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Recent reports show that by the time we build our next coal-fired power station, the electricity it produces will be more expensive that if we use renewable energy to produce it. We need to get to work implementing those solutions that will solve the climate crisis, put us on the path to 350, and help poor communities develop in a sustainable way.

Click Here to Take Action

To make sure the World Bank hears us, we will take this petition and deliver it directly to the Board of Directors at their offices in Washington D.C. next week - if we can get a few of them to vote no it's much more likely that the loan request will be rejected. We won't stand for unjust solutions and dirty energy - we're getting to work in our communities, and we expect our leaders to do the same.

Please share this far and wide. Forward it on to friends, tweet it and share on facebook

 

Two friends deserve special credit for laying down there thoughts on the the climate movement last year, and you all deserve to check out the wonderful ways in which they're telling their stories.

Robert Van Waarden, a photographer and longtime documenter of the climate movement, gave me shivers when I watched his photo compilation on youtube this morning.  The title?  '2009: The Explosion of the Climate Change Movement.'  There's hope for you, and it's amazing to watch.  Along with many of our 350 friends, watch for the good work that so many allies did in other campaigns last year as well - the incredible organizing that went into last year and which will help carry us forward this year.

After that, click through to read a poem by our friend Deepa Gupta, cofounder of the Indian Youth Climate Movement, on what she will remember most from 2009.  If you start getting sad/frustrated in the opening stanzas, read on.

Robert's Compilation:

Deepa's Poem:

The morning that followed Our message was echoed. A failure! A failure! My heart in despair.   The science lost, funding tossed, No commitment in sight. A stench of injustice, The result: A failed plight.   “What more did you expect?” Accusing voices chimed, “Your efforts are a waste Of carbon, cash and time”.   Is it a failure? Were we mistaken? How will we remember Copenhagen?   How will we remember Copenhagen?     I will remember the:   Forming of three fifty In hundreds of states. The Hundred thousand Who marched till late. Millions worldwide that stood, And more that signed In protest for the rights For all Human Kind.   I will remember the:   Largest mobilisation In world’s history. Working in unity. Despite culture or country. Rising above divisions In the “social order”; Be religion, gender Or a political border.   I will remember the:   Youth in the negotiations Who brought heart and tears. A champion for the voices, The leaders needed to hear. The Indigenous people In the justice fight, For our Mother’s Land to Which we have equal right.   I will remember the:   Largest gathering Of Heads in one room. Of countries pleading, To save them from doom. Prayer to protect nations. Have you seen such heart? In a Global affair, it Is a hopeful start.     But a start is all it is.   Do not ignore the Truth. Two degrees is death to Africa, the islands, And our generation. In our success there still Remains a challenge, A long way to go, it Needs our dedication     It will take:   One goal. Seven continents. A hundred paths. Thousands of leaders. Millions of voices and Billions of hearts. To arrive at our Destination.     Many may call this vision naive. But perhaps naivety is all we have? As long as there is love in the world, We are on the right track.   Where there is love, There is hope. Where there is hope, There is inspiration. Where there is inspiration, There is change. And if there is change, We can stop climate change.

President Obama is on a tour across the southern USA right now promoting his plans for getting the country back to work. The number one program he highlighted? "Cash-for-Caulkers," a $6 billion proposal to provide cash rebates to people who improve the energy efficiency of their homes. That's right: getting America and the world back to work means investing in clean energy programs that save cash and the climate.

“This is not a Democratic idea or a Republican idea,” Obama told his audience. “This is a common-sense approach that will help jump-start job creation while making our economy stronger.”

Here's why I like this proposal: it gives everyday people the incentive they need to get to work tackling the climate crisis from the ground up. We've spent so long waiting for Congress or the United Nations to take action and repeatedly watched our leaders fail to deliver. It's time to show them how it's done.

That last piece is extra important. Incentive programs like "Cash-for-Caulkers" are no substitute for national legislation or international treaties. We need both. If we're going to get back below 350 ppm, we need action on every level, not just the local.

So, as we get to work implementing projects on the local level, let's tell our politicians that it's time for them to get to work at the national. Like, how about passing some legislation now and then? They can come announce their support for a bold climate policy while they help weatherize my apartment!

And as for President Obama, I hope he continues to build up momentum for a bold clean energy policy in the United States. The rest of the world has waited far to long as the US Congress holds the international climate negotiations hostage. While Obama's at it, how about weatherizing the White House and the US Capitol? Personally, I think President Obama would look good with a green hard hat and caulk gun.

The race is on to get back to 350 ppm! On the 20th of March, our friends at the Young National Trade Union Congress and ECO Singapore are planning Run 350, a race through the natural surroundings of Pulau Ubin to promote climate awareness. Registration is now closed -- but if you're in Singapore or have friends in the area, make sure to go out to cheer on the runners.

And that's not all that's planned in Singapore this year. Organizers at ECO Singapore are planning events for Earth Hour, creating resources to help students cut their emissions and run efficiency programs, and strengthening their network throught the country.

ECO Singapore will also be busy in 2010 building an Asian Youth Climate Movement across the region. The ground is fertile for such movement building: last year, thousands of young people in Asia took part in the 350.org campaign. In early October, 350.org brought nearly 80 young people from 14 different Asia countries to Bangok for an Asian Youth Climate Workshop. On October 24, thousands of young people joined rallies across Asia from Bhutan to Indonesia. And in December, dozens of Asian youth attended the Copenhagen climate conference and didn't miss the opportunity to strategize about the months ahead.

ECO Singapore has already opened up "ECO" chapters in Indonesia, Japan, and Malaysia and is looking to expand the Philippines and Thailand in the coming months. They've even got a mascot (pictured right). First up, though, is the race this March. Good luck to all the contestants and many thanks to the organizers for getting the 350 movement off to a great start in 2010!

Jim Hansen is the person most responsible for the 350 movement--he's the NASA scientist whose team demonstrated in 2008 that 350 was the most important number in the world, and that's only the latest of his accomplishments. In 1988 he was the first to warn the US Congress that global warming was real and dangerous. 

Now he's written a remarkable book, Storms of My Grandchildren, that summarizes the latest data in readable and understandable form. If you know people who still doubt the facts about climate change, then this is the book they need. There will soon be Chinese, Malaysian and Italian editions, but for now the book is available most easily in the US, where it has been receiving excellent reviews.  

Ask at your local bookstore or Amazon or Barnes and Noble.  And take a look at this interview with David Letterman.

 

There's a lot of good news lately on the grassroots organizing front. On campuses, at churches, on bus tours, all across the U.S., there's a resurgance of practical and political change. It's the kind of inspiration we all need as 2010 kicks off, and as we head towards the historic 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.

In that spirit, we wanted to provide a few bits of information to help you get ready for Earth Day. First, our friends in Massachusetts are at it again. There's a new initiative afoot to help replace 100,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity by helping citizens retrofit their homes. You can learn more the Commonwealth Challenge by watching the video below.

Second, if you're looking for a way to host an Earth Day event in your town, consider screening the wonderful film "No Impact Man," starring 350 Messenger Colin Beavan. A film screening is a great way to bring people together and use it as an opportunity to host a brainstorming session about helping your town lower its negative impacts and up its positive ones! More info can be found here.

On the global scale, our friends at Earth Day Network are the aggregators of all the many activites on Earth Day, so check out their website. There will also be an important international gathering in Bolivia taking place around Earth Day. We'll be there with our friends from throughout the Andes, so check back for updates!

 

 

          

In these weeks of post-Copenhagen assessment, everyone is trying to figure out how best to proceed—and one of the most interesting approaches (even if it doesn’t sound so interesting at first) comes from colleagues who are pushing hard for more research and development funding for renewable technology, a so-called ‘innovation agenda.’

To understand its importance, remember how much attention campaigners have paid to raising the price of fossil fuel, with a tax or a cap or some other way to make coal, gas, and oil more expensive. That work continues—but it’s obviously not easy, as events in Denmark and in the US Senate make clear. We’re still, by many accounts, going far too slowly.

You could also work from the other direction: making renewable energy so cheap that it supplants the dirty stuff almost automatically. The Breakthrough Institute and the Truman National Security Project earlier this month convened a collection of groups in Washington, USA to discuss how to build support for public funding for more aggressive research and development spending. The participants included, significantly, Google, perhaps the greatest innovation company on the planet (the 350 campaign anyway seems to run on Gmail, Googledocs, and GoogleEarth), which for several years has been working on a project they call RE<C. They’re hoping for the kind of funding that will put hundreds of thousands of scientists hard at work on the project, and hoping too that it will produce quantum leaps, not incremental improvements, in the efficiency of renewables. Imagine some new idea that suddenly made a solar panel twice as efficient—all our work would get considerably easier. (And in the spirit of cooperation, it's nice to see that Microsoft founder Bill Gates has been making much the same point about technology recently--they may not agree about web browsers, but they're on the same page when it comes to energy). You can see solar panels at the Googleplex headquarters in the picture above.

The conference in Washington was mostly for Americans, but this same kind of work is underway elsewhere. Happily, the same kind of thinking is going on in China and India. In fact, you’ll be hearing more from us as the spring goes on about some plans to spur friendly competition at the grassroots level in the Great Powers.

The other good news is that we can do all of this work at once: make fossil fuel more expensive and make green energy cheaper. We can get started with green energy already, obviously, but the better the technology gets, the easier the transition. 350 is a very tough target—it demands that we follow every lead we can think of.

I had never heard of Sakarya, Turkey until today when I opened the 350 flickr account and discovered this photo...

Photo: Fatih Mehmet Akdan

Over 350 people had come together for the 15th Youth Council led by the Community Volunteers Foundation in Southwestern Turkey, and they formed this 350 both to carry forward the call for urgent action on climate change, and to unite with a truly global social movement.  Last October 24 was the identified as the most widespread day of political action in history -- and the geographic spread and connectedness of this movement only continues to grow.  We look forward to working alongside the youth in Sakarya in transitioning our communities and our globe to the world below 350 ppm CO2.

Here's a long piece that our friends at TomDispatch.org were nice enough to publish:

 

The Attack on Climate-Change Science 
Why It’s the O.J. Moment of the Twenty-First Century 
By Bill McKibben

Twenty-one years ago, in 1989, I wrote what many have called the first book for a general audience on global warming. One of the more interesting reviews came from the Wall Street Journal.  It was a mixed and judicious appraisal.  “The subject,” the reviewer said, “is important, the notion is arresting, and Mr. McKibben argues convincingly.”  And that was not an outlier: around the same time, the first president Bush announced that he planned to “fight the greenhouse effect with the White House effect.”

I doubt that’s what the Journal will say about my next book when it comes out in a few weeks, and I know that no GOP presidential contender would now dream of acknowledging that human beings are warming the planet.  Sarah Palin is currently calling climate science “snake oil” and last week, the Utah legislature, in a move straight out of the King Canute playbook, passed a resolution condemning "a well organized and ongoing effort to manipulate global temperature data in order to produce a global warming outcome" on a nearly party-line vote.

And here’s what’s odd. In 1989, I could fit just about every scientific study on climate change on top of my desk. The science was still thin.  If my reporting made me think it was nonetheless convincing, many scientists were not yet prepared to agree.

Read the rest...

In 2010, it's time to get to work (as the Armenia Tree Project is doing in the above photo).  A big part of getting to work is making our movement for climate action many times bigger, more powerful, and simply impossible to ignore by our politicians.  This means getting together with other leaders in your community, strategizing, choosing projects and campaigns to work on, reaching out to absolutely every organization, school, etc. in your town or city, getting your mayor on board for climate action - it means going all out!  At 350, we believe in the power of creativity, hard work, and collaboration to make our voices heard without much time or resources, but we know that some funding can really help.  I wanted to write this because recently I kept receiving different funding opportunities and awards announcements in my inbox and thought I'd better share!  So here's a quick list of resources and opportunities that might be useful for your local climate action group to apply to. These opportunities tend to skew towards the youth activists reading this, but hopefully there's something for everyone.  And please reply in the comments section with any other opportunities you know of to help local groups build capacity, find resources, and make their voices heard!

Action for Nature's International Eco-hero Awards

Global Greengrants

Brighter Planet's project fund

The Captain Planet Foundation's grants

Brower Youth Awards

The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes

Ashoka

Sparkplug Foundation

And check out this whole list of resources and fundraising tips from Ashoka's Youth Venture program - the Brower Youth Awards also have a list here.  It's time to think big, and get to work!  Let us know how it goes.

 

About a week and a half ago, the tiny island-nation of Nauru posted its submission to the UNFCCC regarding the skeletal "Copenhagen Accord" that emerged last December. It's significance went largely unnoticed, but is worth examining.

First, a primer. Never heard of Nauru?  You're not alone.  With an area of just 21 square kilometres, it's the smallest island nation in the world.  But just because its small, doesn't mean its not active.  They managed to pull off a great climate action on October 24th, not only raising climate awareness in a vulnerable country but also getting to work planting trees.  Maybe most importantly, it looks like they had a lot of fun while doing it:

For an island of about 9,000 people who are not traditionally known for their environmental advocacy, that's saying something.  (If the United States had the same number of actions per capita, there would have been 24,966 events in the USA alone on October 24th).

I'd like to think that there's a connection between Nauru's 350 action and their unflinching submission to the UNFCCC regarding the Copenhagen Accord. Nauru's submission repeatedly asserts that the rather weak framework of the Copenhagen Accord "does not represent a consensus."

Nauru's submission also identifies a glaring omission in the Copenhagen Accord--that "there is no long-term limit for stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations at well below 350ppm CO2-equivalent levels."  It goes onto identify what is perhaps the most worrying aspect of the accord: that "the pledges for emissions reductions announced by developing countries would not limit global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius, let alone 1.5 degrees celsius."

Much is uncertain about the future of the Copenhagen Accord, and the role of small countries like Nauru in negotiating a global climate agreement.  I asked  Nerida-Ann Hubert, a local 350 organizer from Nauru, if she had any thoughts on the recent developments.  She she sent along this quote, from a traditional Nauruan song:

"Obwio Naoero, auwe kor" ("My home Nauru, I love you so")

In these uncertain times after the chaos of Copenhagen, it's comforting to think that this love of our homeland can motivate everyday people to take action.  It's this kind of love--and this kind of action--that will motivate our leaders to speak truth to power. Here's to more of it in 2010...

The Hummer, symbol of absurd gas-guzzling obnoxiousness, is no more! General Motors, the American car firm, announced plans to shut down production today. They'd tried to sell the company to a Chinese concern, but the Chinese government wisely held up the deal. Now let's see if we can have a race towards clean energy as well as away from the dirty stuff!

The American Van Jones, a 350 messenger and one of our favorite of all green leaders around the planet, is back campaigning hard for clean jobs and climate protection. Van was hounded out of his job with the Obama administration last fall by foes of climate action--now he's resurfaced with important positions at a bigt Washington think tank and at Princeton University. That increases the odds for good things happening on energy policy in the U.S.!