Forget the Poll Results - 350 is the Number That Counts

Fighting global warming isn’t going to take one person. It isn’t going to take even a few people. Or organizations. According to Bill McKibben, famed environmental writer, it’s going to take the whole world…and a number.

Over the summer McKibben got 350.org up and running - a network of organizations and individuals around the world with the goal of getting the word out about that all-important number. And it’s not just any old number. It’s the parts per million that Dr. John Hansen says we need to reduce emissions to in the near future to save life as we know it.

And today the group launched a new political campaign: an invitation to both the candidates to represent the United States in upcoming UN climate talks in Poland this December, no matter who gets elected president. Although it’s in the form of a petition, the group is adamant that it’s not just that:

“One thing that differentiates it is calling it an invitation. We’re not just focusing on getting people in the U.S. to sign it. We’re trying to get many, many signatures from the U.S. and abroad that show that the world is watching what the U.S. does in Poland. It’s a really important move for the presidential elect to make.”

This comes from May Boeve, the person in charge of setting up the campaign, whom I spoke to over the summer for a story I did for E, The Environmental Magazine. At the time she still wasn’t sure of a start date, but the campaign is opening the just as the world is watching the two candidates duke it out a second time tonight.

One of the driving forces of this invitation is the U.S.’s historic role in emitting carbon dioxide, according to McKibben in a mass e-mail.

“The United States has historically contributed the most to global warming, and over the past eight years it’s done the least to stop it. In fact, the U.S. has actively tried to block progress on a global climate deal.”

Before this, 350.org has mostly focused on increasing awareness over the number, through art and an athlete campaign to gather 350 athletes in support of the goal.

Photo Credit: bjelkeman on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

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