350 Updates

Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben

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Devon, UK

Here's a report from some friends in England:

Dancing for climate action in the heart of Devon.
Devon put on at least 12 events, one of the most colourful and well attended took place in the beautiful surroundings of the Teign Valley.

Children from three local primary schools (Hennock, Dunsford and
Doddiscomsleigh) dressed in pink, red and orange T-shirts danced on a lush green parish field ending up in a 350 formation.  It was a simple dance executed with the commitment and verve adult dancers would have been proud of. Impressively, the children understood that the importance of the 350 lies in the necessity of bringing carbon levels in the atmosphere down from 390 to 350 parts per million.

Ann Daniels, Devon Polar explorer, who opened the event, updated the audience with the latest findings from the Catlin Arctic Survey. She said that the Arctic Sea would lose its summer ice in ten years and we would all witness the changes.

She addressed the children directly, telling them they were the future.

“People are more important than leaders, there are more of us and what we do can make a real difference. When I see people coming together for an event like this, I feel optimistic.”

The dance theme was continued by Kalash ATS, a troupe of vividly adorned belly dancers who performed in front of a beautiful 350 banner made by the children of Doddiscombsleigh School.  The afternoon finished with a riproaring performance by Jackie Juno, comedienne and poet from Bovey Tracey.

This was the first major event put on by Greener Teign, a climate action group formed in July.

 
Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben

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Super pictures from Mumbai

One of the world's great cities, where the ocean is already near the top of the seawall at the highest tides!

 
Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben

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From Belgrade, Serbia

Taking part in the International day of climate action, members of
citizen initiative "Protect Zvezdara forest" Belgrade, Serbia; from
youngest to oldest, after collecting 350 acorns as a symbolic way to
show that the trees of future are planted today.
We have also distributed flyers containing basic facts about forest
and its beneficial impact on environment and quality of life, and
informed citizens about global climate change and meaning of 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Photo by: Lidija Trandafilović

 
Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben

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"Greetings Olgeta,"

This is a very special picture, which just arrived from Papua New Guinea--from the community where some of the world's first climae refugees, driven from the Carteret Islands by rising waters, have resettled. Here's the report:

Greetings Olgeta (all of you in local pidgin)... A beautiful day dawned here in Tinputz Community, the centre of the regions Climate Action Day in partnership with 350.org on 24'th October 2009.

Ursula Rakova, event organiser and director of Tulele Peisa, led the day’s actions which included the planting of mangroves and garden drops for food security, the ringing of the Church Bell 350 times and the formation of 350 by the school children of the community. She then addressed the larger community about the significance of the number 350 in relation to climate change. From there, lunch and live bands and traditional dances, to continue to welcome the Carteret’s Islanders into the Tinputz and build and strengthen the community spirit to support the tough transition facing the worlds first climate change refugees.

 
Jamie Henn
Jamie Henn

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350 means no more mountaintop removal

I just opened a touching email from Mike Harman in West Virginia, thanking us -- but really all of you -- for taking action to stop mountain top removal. 

Last week, an email went out to 350.org supporters and organizers in the United States to call public officials and demand an end to mountaintop removal mining to protect Coal River Mountain in West Virginia and hundreds of other sites throughout Appalachia. Thousands of you took action and together with our allies we sent over 50,000 messages to the Environmental Protection Agency and other key officials in Washington. And there were actions across Appalachia for October 24, including the one from West Virginia pictured in this post.

Mike wrote: 

Thanks for the latest from the "350.org" crew...re coal issues in West Virginia. My drinking water is from the Coal River (supplying the municipal water system for St. Albans) so I am very concerned about what happens in that watershed, where most coal is mined by mountaintop removal and local well water is being ruined.

And here's an excerpt from an oped Mike published in the Charlestown Gazette last week: 

Over the past 38 years, I have personally seen what coal mining can do to individuals, in terms of the health impacts, and I have seen what coal mining does for a major portion of southern West Virginia communities. It's hard for me to understand where coal mining leads to prosperity. Where is that taking place today? Jobs in the coal industry have been steadily on the decline ever since strip mining began to eat into employment in underground mines, and ever since state and federal laws and regulations have been either weakened by politics or ignored by crumbling, understaffed and underfunded enforcement agencies.

Getting to 350 will mean defining a new type of prosperity for communities around the world. We're proud to be working with people from Appalachia to Albania who are doing just that.