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Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Truman Joins Global Day Of Climate Action
[Kirksville, MO] October 24th—People from Truman State University and around Kirksville gathered to raise awareness for clean energy initiatives as part of the largest day of climate change activism ever. Participants joined more than 2,000 communities in over 150 countries as part of a global day of action coordinated by 350.org to urge world leaders to take bold and immediate steps to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions.
“Our energy use is an economic issue,” said Missouri Power Shift field organizer Brett Wiley. “Missourians are paying $13 billion dollars a year to import 94% of our energy from fossil fuels. Our energy use in an environmental issue: burning coal and oil spews greenhouse gases that are warming out planet. And most importantly, our energy use is a people issue: dirty energy pollution constricts our children’s lungs and sickens our communities.”
Around the world Saturday—from capitol cities to the melting slopes of Mount Everest, even underwater on dying coral reefs—people held rallies aimed at focusing attention on the number 350 because scientists have insisted in recent years that 350 parts per million is the most carbon dioxide we can safely have in the atmosphere. The current CO2 concentration is 390 parts per million.
“That’s why glaciers and sea ice are melting, drought is spreading, and flooding is on the increase,” said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and author twenty years ago of the first major book on climate change. “And it’s why we need a huge worldwide movement to give us the momentum to make real political change. Our leaders have heard from major corporations and big polluters for a long time—today, finally, they heard from citizens and scientists.”
These global actions come six weeks before the world’s nations convene in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference to draw up a new climate treaty. 89 countries have already endorsed the 350 target, as well as the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, the world’s foremost climate economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, and Nobel prize-winner Al Gore.
Images of the events from around the world, including the rally in Kirksville, MO on the Truman State University campus were featured on giant video screens in Times Square in New York as part of a 350 countdown, and are accessible at 350.org as part of a online photostream. Visual documentation From the Day of Action will be delivered to the United Nations on Monday.
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