350 For the World

Of the 16,000 or so images now posted on www.350.org this one from a beach in Australia really gets our attention.

In April I wrote a post called "Icons for the Ears" and talked about "change ringing." Well, on Saturday October 24 people from 181 countries rang "change" bells, made "350" formations, banners, signs, danced, sang, bungee jumped and held 5,200 events to bring attention to our need to actively tackle climate change.

A small group of us joined them.

 
We gathered around the old bell rope hanging from the steeple of our little 19th century church in Bethel, Vermont and pulled it 350 times. The eleven year old among us, who had more upper body strength than some, pulled that rope with great authority. Why?

"It's for our planet and has something to do with bad stuff in the air."

348...349...350! We cheered and I got tears in my eyes thinking of all the people around our little planet posing under similar "350 banners," calling the media and our leaders' attention to the fact earth has a fever. Scientists tell us when our CO2 exceeds 350 parts per million, we're in trouble. It currently stands at 390. Yikes! 

We Vermonters can look forward to future summers in the 90s (unheard of for us), and winter temperatures hovering about 10 degrees warmer than ever before. More rain, ice and slush. Less great skiing. More biting insects. Less maple syrup. More blight on our tomatoes. And, more city folks joining us.

Bill McKibben who started what turns out to be the most massive political protest in history did it because the world needs to know. Many of these pictures were projected from the big screen in Times Square--take a look. 

For one glorious day the entire earth united, beginning on a mountain top in New Zealand where elders gathered at dawn by a wind turbine to pray over the event.  From the oceans to the mountain peaks, north to south and all points in between, people gathered with one voice. WE NEED TO ACT NOW! The message was loud and clear.

Like these rock-climbers from Middlebury, VT, we know it's a steep challenge. Too many (maybe as many as  half of us) Americans think climate change is either a hoax perpetrated by the liberal lefties or weather's cyclical natural behavior and it will improve without our

need to do anything at all except to let markets and profit driven corporations dictate actions.

Adults may argue about how real climate change is, but the kids know--it's their future at stake. Kids like the group in Chicago who figured out how their bodies would read "350" backwards in the "Bean" in Millennium Park.

We concluded our little 350 gathering with what we called a commissioning. We sent each other "forth" with these words and I invite you to join in:

"We commit ourselves anew to seeing the affliction of the earth, hearing its cry, and knowing its suffering. We commit ourselves to learning more about the changes that are needed. We commit ourselves to embarking on that long and difficult road toward life lived in harmony with all God's creation..."

And we pledge to remember:

        We have no Planet B.

 

Photos thanks to 350.org and digital cameras around the world.