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…)

Kirchen, Entwicklungsdienste und Missionswerke präsentieren Klimaplattform

Ohne globale Gerechtigkeit gibt es keinen Klimaschutz. Das erklären evangelische Kirchen sowie evangelische und katholische Entwicklungsdienste und Missionswerke in einer gemeinsamen entwicklungspolitischen Klimaplattform, die am Donnerstag (23.10.) in Düsseldorf vorgestellt wurde. Die drohende Klimakatastrophe lasse sich nur begrenzen, wenn die reichen Staaten auf kurzsichtigen nationalen Egoismus verzichteten. Nur dann hätten die armen Länder eine Chance auf eigene, nachhaltige Entwicklung, heißt es in der Klimaplattform, der sich bis jetzt 18 Landeskirchen und andere Institutionen angeschlossen haben. (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

Efforts to harness the energy potential of Earth’s ocean winds could soon gain an important new tool: global satellite maps from NASA. Scientists have been creating maps using nearly a decade of data from NASA’s QuikSCAT satellite that reveal ocean areas where winds could produce energy.

The new maps have many potential uses including planning the location of offshore wind farms to convert wind energy into electric energy. (more…)

Die Initiative 350.org geht heute, Montag den 9.6. 2009, global.

Die Initiative 350.org, nun schon auf 12 Sprachen übersetzt, hat sich ein wichtiges Ziel gesetzt: Menschen auf der ganzen Welt darüber zu informieren, wie wir die verheerenden Auswirkungen des Klimawandels vermeiden können. Wir benötigen ein Ziel , welches nicht nur ein Lippenbekenntnis ist, sondern welches es tatsächlich schaffen kann, uns aus dem Gefahrenbereich zu bringen. Dieses Ziel lautet:

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Was ist noch einmal unser Ziel? 350. 350 ppm. 350 ppm CO2. 287 ppm ist mehr. Zu viel.

Allerdings ist 387 ppm kein Mittelwert, sondern “nur” der Maximalwert der globalen CO2-Konzentration im Monat Mai 2008. Insgesamt wird das Jahr 2008 im Mittel eine geringere globale CO2-Konzentration aufweisen. Außerdem muß betont werden, daß die Daten des letzten Jahres erst vorläufig sind, und noch kalibriert werden müssen. Die einzelnen Datenpunkte in der nebenstehenden Grafik von NOAA können sich also noch leicht ändern. (more…)

Reprinted with permission by Peter Montague

Global food prices have risen 83% in the last 3 years. This spring, as prices rose steeply, food riots broke out in Haiti, Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Yemen, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Italy, among other places. Because U.S. energy policy subsidizes farmers to grow corn to make ethanol (alcohol that can supplement gasoline), the U.S. is being accused of feeding its sport utility vehicles (SUVs) instead of feeding people. There is some truth to this charge, but it’s more complicated than that.[1]

The global food crisis has been created by a combination of things (MW: also see Foto Galery by Time Magazine from which the foto above is reproduced), among them: (more…)

Below is a part of a letter by US environmentalist, author, and educator Bill McKibben, slightly adjusted to a non-American audience.

Under McKibben’s initiative, the Step It Up! team is soon starting a new campaign: 350. Whereas Step It Up! was focused on the US, 350 will be a global campaign to push for effective global climate action. For background in German on the reasons why we need to decrease the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from 385 ppm to 350 ppm, please see my earlier contribution here.

“Meanwhile, the science around climate change has continued to darken. (more…)