I just came across this short video from an October 24 action organized on the beach in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. I love it because it shows a creative way to get the 350 message across and proves that there is no need for fancy (or expensive) banners and signs: all you need is sand and some sea weed! Check out the video and a description of the day from event organizer Marc Wegerif: 

After recovering from the cycle ride it was time to head to Coco Beach.   It was still intermittently pouring, which along with the dark clouds made it one of the worst beach days of the year for Dar es Salaam.  Despite this activists arrived to make a giant 350 in the sand.  A group of children came with messages they had written on sheets of card and shared these with us and others on the beach.  

A few days ago when we checked the site we had found a clean beach of golden sand, but today it was covered in seaweed and litter.  Clearly the currents had changed and brought the rubbish onto the beach.  The rain had also washed the rubbish in the drains and river beds of the city into the sea.  The local environment issues brought home to us by the lines of plastic bags, empty bottles and other litter.

We started marking out the 350 in the sand, picking up the litter and then building the numbers mostly with our bare hands, many hands making it easy work.  The seaweed came in handy for the finishing touches.  It was decided to build a graph of the carbon levels from the pre industrial revolution level of 280 up to the current level of 390 with the critical target level of 350 in the middle.  We talked people including journalists through this graph explaining the causes of climate change and what now needs to be done.  As Latif Amars one of the organizers explained “we just can’t survive at the current level, our leaders need to act now to get carbon levels back to 350”.

Throughout the afternoon people joined in and the interest it generated in other beach users was an opportunity to tell them about climate change and the need for a fair and safe deal in Copenhagen.  We were all rewarded for our work with improving weather and by the time we finished the 350 the sun was out.

Many of us stayed on the beach to relax and watch as the tide came in and started to wash away the unsustainable 390 in the sand.  The 350 was still in place when I left just before sunset.

Sometimes, it's hard to imagine how, in some of the world's most fragile democracies, citizen pressure can work. Some of the most exciting emails I've received in the weeks after October 24 have been from 350 organizers in Africa. In many places in the world, it's easy to walk into a Senator or MPs office, talk to an aide and make your voice heard. In Nigeria, Ghana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia, it's not that easy.

Even so, some of our most dedicated October 24 organizers called their Enivronment Ministers, MPs, and delegates to the UN climate talks over and over, and lo and behold, their doggedness payed off. Below are a couple photos from deliveries and presentations made to high-level officials, showing that as a movement, we are effective nearly everywhere in the world.

Abuja, Nigeria - Organizers make delivery to Nigerian Environment Minister

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo - Organizers make delivery to DRC Environment Minister

News stories about the incredible events of October 24th keep coming in. Just a few days ago, The Watch (an American newspaper in the state of Colorado) published this piece on Shane Carrick and Cody Willis, 350 organizers who put together a skateboarding action in the town of Ridgway. Read the piece, take a look at these great pictures, and remember to think globally, act locally, and to tip off a reporter when you do.  

"RIDGWAY – In Ridgway’s very own town skatepark, a little piece of history occurred. On Oct. 24, skateboarders and supporters from around the area came together to participate in the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet's history...." [continued here]

are running a great campaign to get 350 on rooftops and other places best observed from above--in fact, they hope to have the number in strategic places in Copenhagen so those arriving for the conference will see it even before their plane lands. Ryan, Laura Marie and others have done amazing work, and we'll keep featuring it here. Mostly, of course, such isntallations are in urban areas. But look at this image they found from Nord-Kivu in the Congo

on Boston Common, about 2 a.m., when the police arrived to arrest or cite a couple of hundred college students from across Massachusetts who were sleeping out to protest the coal-fired power that heats their dorms. They've pledged not to sleep inside till the Copenhagen conference starts, and it was a great privilege to be with them last night, even if the police were none too happy. These young people, in the Leadership Campaign are an example to us all.

It was a great day all around, that began with the annual conference of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network, one of the oldest and best regional groups in the United States. Then we marched by the hundreds from Cambridge to Boston, chanting "What do We Want? 350. When Do We Want It? Now!"  

I left in the morning for a talk in St. Louis, but the college students descended on the State House to lobby for their plan to shut down all the dirty power plants in the state by 2020. Good for them!

Ever wonder if your actions are really being heard? Last week, thousands of us signed a Survival Pact in support of President Nasheeds' call for climate action on behalf of some of the most vulnerable countries in the world. It was just the type of support that will help climate champions like Pres Nasheed stay strong in the face of attempts to delay and weaken necessary action. Over the weekend, a Maldivian paper published a great article on the campaign, echoing the words that we've heard from supporters in the Maldives and the world, "Thank you for joining us in saying that survival is not negotiable."

350.org call on public to sign President's "Survival Pact" 
Minivan News, 15 November 2009

350.org has posted an online petition on its site to support President Mohamed Nasheed’s survival pact, announced at the Vulnerable Climate Forum, last week.

At a congregation of 11 of the world’s most climate vulnerable countries, the president invited participants to choose survival over suicide and commit to drastic cuts in emission at the landmark UN climate change conference in Copenhagen this December.

“At the moment every country arrives at the negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible. They never make commitments, unless someone else does first.

“This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collection suicide. We don’t want a global suicide pact...So today, I invite some of the most vulnerable nations in the world, to join a global survival pact instead.”

In an email to Minivan News today, Bill McKibben, the man behind the 350 campaign, which is calling for reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350ppm, said they had received tens of thousands of signatures in support of the pact.

On the speech, McKibben said, “I thought it was the best speech by a head of state about climate change in the 20 years I’ve been working on the issue. Finally someone dropped the language of political convenience and replaced it with the language of scientific necessity.”

Over on Nasheed’s Facebook page, readers have praised his speech.

“Thank you President Nasheed for having the courage to tell it like it is,” said Laura Lamond, while Susan Blayney from Canada said the speech moved her to write to her MP.

Bruce William Oswell Haynes wrote that the speech was the “most powerful use of the spoken word I have heard for a long time.”

On the V-11 summit, McKibben said it showed that most vulnerable nations would “not go quietly to the gallows”.

“It set them up to be the moral leaders at Copenhagen and beyond. Far more than the big global environmental groups, these nations now represent the cutting edge of the debate.”

Although the climate change talks are less than a month away, negotiations have virtually reached a standstill.

At the last round of negotiations in Barcelona, Spain, earlier this month, the divide between rich and poor countries remained more pronounced than ever.

While the developing world are demanding broad cuts in emissions from the developed world, the latter are reluctant to commit. Another issue of contention is how much aid rich countries should given poorer ones to help them adapt to climate change.

In the declaration signed at the V-11, participants agreed to show moral leadership and begin the process of greening their economies but stopped short of committing to going carbon neutral.

In March, Nasheed announced his intention to make the Maldives the first carbon-neutral country in the world and at the summit, called on other countries to join him.

Other countries at the summit included Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Kiribati, Barbados, Bhutan, Ghana, Rwanda and Kenya.

Although they are among the lowest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, they share between them the worst impacts of climate change including desertification, drought, floods, storm surges and vulnerability to sea level rise.

The declaration further called for cuts in emissions that would ensure global temperatures remained below 2.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels and that atmospheric carbon dioxide was returned to the safe threshold of 350 ppm.

On 24 October, 350.org led a world-wide protest for this reduction in carbon dioxide levels. People in 181 countries participated by holding over 5,200 events.

McKibben told Minivan News the campaign would now help organise a series of candlelight vigils around the world on 12 December, especially targeted at US embassies and consulates.

“It has become clear that even in the age of Obama, the United States still represents the fundamental roadblock to change,” he said.

To sign the Survival Pact click here.

What disappointing news today, with the Obama administration and other world leaders announcing that they weren't going to make substantive progress in Copenhagen, that there will likely be no legally binding treaty at the end of December's UN climate talks.

It's too bad that citizens all over the planet are so far in advance of their leaders, but it makes it very clear that we will need to keep growing our movements quickly--nothing else can counterbalance the power of the vested interests that have so far been able to delay action.

The next good chance will come on the weekend of Dec. 12, when there will be candlelight vigils and rallies around the world. Many will take place at American embassies and consulates, because we continue to believe--perhaps against the evidence--that the Obama administration will rise to the occasion and really lead in finding solutions to the crisis that it more than any other nation has caused. More on this soon--for now, clear out that weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) and we'll do our best to keep you posted as plans shape up.

Onward.