[Editor’s Note: The Mountaineer went to press before Saturday’s “350” event. This opinion by one of the event’s organizers is based on events scheduled at GMC and beyond.]
BY TODD MARTIN
Climate change is shaping up to be the most important issue of our generation. Warmer average global temperatures are giving rise to glacial melting, acidifying oceans, severe weather patterns, and rampant spreading of diseases among other haunting effects. In the summer of 2007, ice covering the Arctic Sea decreased by 40 percent. Scientists believe that the Arctic Sea could have no ice at all by the summer of 2013, eighty years ahead of what scientists had predicted! As glaciers melt, sea levels rise, just like melting ice cubes in a glass of water. Scientists predict that if the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet melts, which it is predicted to do so, global sea levels could rise seventeen feet. This in turn would cause major flooding of coastal cities that are just above sea level such as New York and Washington DC and would wipe out island nations such as the Maldives off the coast of India.
It is easy to feel helpless and ignore global climate change, to stand by idly and do nothing, especially when our leaders ignore our scientist’s warnings. It’s a lot like an exam—you can procrastinate all week but when the night before the exam comes, you’re up all night frantically studying trying to make up for lost time. At some point, it becomes necessary to take a stand, to get serious about the issue at hand and to act. Scientists say that we are running out of time, that levels of greenhouse gases are getting out of control and that the climate is changing too rapidly. Before the industrial revolution when civilization started to burn fossil fuels as its predominant energy source, carbon dioxide (CO2) existed in the atmosphere at approximately 280 parts per million (ppm). Since then, civilization has been burning coal and oil at an accelerated rate, releasing millions of years of geologically-stored CO2 into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases prevent solar radiation from exiting the Earth’s atmosphere, creating the greenhouse effect that scientists have been painstakingly monitoring in recent years. Currently, CO2 exists in our atmosphere at 389ppm. Dr. James Hansen, one of our most trusted NASA climatologists said, “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggests that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 389 ppm to 350ppm.” It’s time for the world to get serious about climate change in order to ensure a safe and healthy planet.
Between December 7 and 18, 2009, world leaders from 170 countries will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to draft new climate legislation as a follow up to the 1997 Kyoto protocol which expires in 2012. Scientists and environmentalists alike believe that the Copenhagen climate conference is humanity’s last chance to get serious about climate change and to draft serious climate legislation. According to the Copenhagen climate conferences’ official website, “The goals of the climate change convention is to stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous man-made climate changes. This stabilization must occur in such a way as to give ecosystems the opportunity to adapt naturally.” Spearheaded by the Danish government, the Copenhagen climate conference offers an opportunity for the world to get serious about mitigating the effects of climate change. Scientists and environmentalists are hoping that world leaders will set ambitious emission caps on carbon and methane, two of the most abundant greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says that carbon emissions must be stabilized by 2015 and in decline by 2020.
In order to encourage world leaders to enact serious climate legislation and set ambitious greenhouse gas emission caps in Copenhagen in December, Bill McKibben, one of the most influential environmental authors and activists of our time, plans to organize the largest day of climate change action in history on Saturday, October 24, as part of his 350 campaign. Over 4,000 actions in 170 countries were scheduled to partake in this global event. People around the world will participate by hiking, biking, dancing, praying, partying, and marching in order to spread the word about 350ppm CO2 and to encourage world leaders to adopt serious climate legislation in Copenhagen.
In Poultney, a large mobilization of Green Mountain College students and faculty was planned in order to demonstrate the institution’s support of the 350 mission. The rally’s plan was to walk down Main Street after a short speech by Club Activism members and a group photograph of all mobilization participants. The picture that was taken of the mobilization was to be uploaded on to 350.org’s website for the world to see. The pictures that amassed from the thousands of actions on Saturday were then planned to be displayed in the heart of New York City in Times Square on a 30-foot television screen with global media standing by to broadcast worldwide. More importantly, on the Monday after October 24, the 350.org crew scheduled to visit the United Nations headquarters and hand-deliver the photos to diplomats and delegates, many of whom will be attending the Copenhagen climate conference.
After the mobilization down Main Street, Club Activism planned to screen the movie “Taking Root, The Vision of Wangari Maathai” thanks in part to the Forest Justice Service. Maathai is a world renowned Kenyan environmentalist and political activist. She was the first African woman and the first environmentalist to receive a Nobel Peace prize for her work with the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights.
