On August 25th, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendera Pachauri, endorsed 350 parts per million as the new target number for the level of CO2 in the earth's atmosphere. In an interview he stated, "What is happening and what is likely to happen, convinces me that the world must be really ambitious and very determined at moving toward a 350 target." Read the full article here.This backing from one of the top UN climate scientists comes as excellent momentum for the 350 movement. Before the chairman's statement, 450 parts per million had been the goal, set by a 2007 report given by the IPCC. This number has since been reduced, due to many factors- such as the Arctic melting, the decay of Greenland's ice sheet, and proof of methane release from permafrost.
This is great news for the international youth climate movement, showing that progress is indeed being made with some of the top scientists and leaders of the world. It comes just in time for the anticipation of October 24th- a "Day of Action" set for events around the globe set to spread the message of 350.
2 comments:
the 350 movement expresses not only an act of charity or consideration of the others in our communities. It is also a clarion call for rational ways to prevent the degradation of the atmosphere to a point where we or our children would notice that there is no longer enough oxygen to satisfy all natural processes on Earth. Including breathing! As we are already in excess of this number it's time for rational thinking and acting. Including helping those who may have missed the science and believe that we do not have a problem. We just have different basis of facts as to what is precautionary action and what is not.
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