Rebel with a Cause: Bill McKibben was the theme of last night’s Colorado Environmental Coalition (CEC) fund raising event held in the Seawell Ballroom at the Denver Center for Performing Arts. The nearly 500 people attending this annual event endured the initial silent and live auctions to hear the noted author, environmentalist and climate change educator, Bill McKibben, reiterate the positive role Colorado’s renewable energy initiatives are playing with respect to Planet Earth. McKibben then launched into a rapid-fire slide show presentation illustrating the young life of a global initiative he organized recently called 350.org.
Note: The number 350 represents an upper limit of carbon dioxide (CO2) measured in parts per million (ppm) contained in our atmosphere… “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 suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.”
Quote from a scientific paper , Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?, published on 15 Oct 2008 by James Hansen of America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the first scientist to warn about global warming more than two decades ago. Hansen co-authored this recent paper with 9 other American and European scientists (from NASA, Columbia Univ. Earth Institute, Boston Univ., Wesleyan Univ., Univ. California Santa Cruz, Yale Univ., Univ. Sheffield(UK) , and LSCE/IPSL(France).
Since Hansen’s paper was published in 2008, the CO2 level has increased to just over 390 ppm.
Several photos taken on the 2010 Global “Work Day” sponsored by 350.org held on 10/10/2010 are included in the slide show below.
The visual impact of seeing groups of people around the globe concerned about climate change and taking local action to live responsibly is inspiring.
Much more to say in a later blog about the 20 metric tonnes of CO2 each American dumps into the atmosphere each year. Not to mention the 16 tonnes for each Canadian, 8 tonnes for each European, 5 tonnes for each Chinese, 4 tonnes for each Arab, and 1.4 tonnes for each person in India. [ref: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, United States.]
http://earth.google.com/kmlpreview/#url=http%3A%2F%2Fbbs.keyhole.com%2Fubb%2Fubbthreads.php%3Fubb%3Ddownload%26Number%3D1003898
No Comments