Did you know that today was fossil fools day, with 100s of demonstrations in the US, Canada, and around the world? It was a day to tell politicians and CEOs of large fossil fuel companies that we cannot be fooled any more by half-hearted climate policies that keep supporting the fossil fuel industry.

If you knew about it and did something about it, great! If this is the first time you heard about it, nothing much is lost, as a much more important day is just waiting around the corner: the global day of climate action on October 24 2009. Just to rub it in, I HAD to mention that day just one more time.

Source: 1Sky, Fossil Fools Day

Maiken Winter

Please read the invitation by Bill McKibben and other world climate leaders to participate in a  global day of climate action on October 24 2009. This is not going to be yet another action day that you can forget about. This is going to be THE day for the world to stand up for our children and show the world’s leaders that time is up: We need effective action NOW. Please share your inspirations, ideas, and plans with all of us; either on www.350.org, or on the Klimaschutz-Wiki for Germany.

On October 24, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we’ll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety.

This movement has just begun, and it needs your help.

Here’s the plan: we’re asking you, and people in every country on earth, to organize an action in your community on October 24. (more…)

Who on earth likes to go to the movie and get depressed? Right. Me neither.  But what about a combinations of depressing news, with eye-opening frankness, amazing insights that we all really should have thought of long ago, and a new realization about the immenseness of human stupidity? Ok, actually, that doesn’t really sound too much fun, either. Never mind that.

Just forget any description you read, and any hesitation you might feel.

Just watch it when you get the chance. Or - even better - don’t wait for the movie to come to you.  Try your best to get the movie into your theaters. Now.

The Age of Stupid. (more…)

Please participate in the survey mentioned at the bottom of this article

On the last day of PowerShift 09 - climate education and activism by more than 12,000 youth that gathered from all over the US in D.C. - on March 2 2009, a large number of people will converge in D.C. to protest against coal (see earlier blog entry here and an article by the washington Pots by Bill McKibben here).

In this yet largest demonstration against coal-fired power plants in the U.S., participants will call for attention to the fact that CO2 concentration has risen to dangerous levels, and that we thus cannot afford to keep adding CO2 to the atmosphere. (more…)

Written by Stuart Scott, member of Al Gore’s The Climate Project, and author of the blog “Climatecorps“.

I am at a loss for how to even begin to express the treasure I’ve found in the past couple of days.  It is something so vital to the effort to save humanity from its own ’success’ that I have decided to attach myself to the effort to promote this amazing documentary.  It is called The Age of Stupid.  I will provide links below to the website for the film, specifically to the page with trailers, and encourage you to whet your appetite in advance of the film’s actual release, which will come as early in 2009 as the people behind the film can negotiate.  (more…)

Those of you who have been following this blog for a while will understand how excited I am. 350 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere is a goal that we urgently need to work towards to avoid a climate catastrophe (see previous 350 articles on this blog). For months many of us have urged Al Gore to include 350 ppm in his message to the world.

Today he did. He did so in front of the entire world, at the UN Climate Confrence in Poznan. In his words “450 ppm is ineadequate. We have to toughen up and reach 350 ppm.” (more…)

No matter what will be the outcome of Poznan today, there is still this fact: “If we could leverage local action, then we might not need any official climate negotiations.” (Pavan Sukhder, TEEB, Project leader for Green Economy, UNEP). He based that opinion on an example from housewifes in Bangladesh who installed > 200,000 solar panels on their houses. When the poorest of the poor are taking action, then the rest of the world should be able to do so, too, with or without an agreement by the nations of this world. After all, who is agreeing here? It is not the world’s citizens, but a selected small number of people who not always have the best of the world in mind. (more…)

How do we most effectively communicate our concern to the rest of the world? Now that we know that we are already above the safe level of CO2, now that we know that we need to reduce the CO2 concentration from 385 to 350 ppm, the urgency of effective communication is even greater.

350.org, as we already reported here (in German) or here has started a fun and engaging campaign to spread the number 350 around the world. Global citizens are encouraged to take the number and do with it whatever they feel inspired to do, to express their concern through art, music, poetry, demonstrations, or whatever else.

We already reported about the first 350 song by Jan Nigro. Now we have the first gorgeous 350 quilt, made by Michele Landuyt, who had responded to our call to quilters of the world.

Thank you, Michelle, and thanks to everybody else who feels inspired by 350, and who take the number to help the world understand the urgency of the crisis, and the beauty of the solutions.

Maiken

Brighter Planet offers a free badge which any blog or website can upload to their site - and by doing so, 350 pounds of carbon will be offset.  Together we can thus make a true difference. But more important than offsetting relatively little carbon, you will help to spread the most important number of the world: 350. Thank you for participating!

What is Brighter Planet’s 350 Challenge, exactly?

The 350 Challenge is a small way to show your support to fight climate change. The more bloggers that get our badge, the better. Thousands of readers will know that the climate movement is spreading far beyond the typical “environmental” realm and into the norm. (more…)

Over 50s are ‘hopeful, motivated and positive’ about tackling climate change as World Environment Day calls on people to kick the CO2 habit.

A new survey, conducted by the University of York’s Stockholm Environment Institute, reveals the over 50s believe they are already being affected by climate change, and are willing to take action to reduce their carbon footprint. The results of the survey are being published on World Environment Day — 5 June, which this year calls for international effort to achieve low carbon lifestyles.

Of the nearly 1,000 people surveyed 75% feel that their region is already being affected by climate change — an increase of 8% compared with a survey conducted in 2006. Eight out of ten people (83%) believe their grandchildren will face worse problems than we do, due to climate change. (more…)