Attention… Today is the International Day of Climate Action!

Courtesy – 350.org

Global Warming should be credited for spreading its popularity like a wild fire among all groups of populace. The word is nearly there in everyone’s tip of the tongue. Since long, all of us have been doing all our bits to harm this mother earth, and all of a sudden when our Karma is reverberating, we just can’t stand it. We blame it on Nature, God and God knows what all! Now it’s high time but we still tend not to pay heed to the importance of doing something about it. Global meetings, widespread messages are not just enough to help save this earth. We, as an individual, should take up the responsibility to make this place a better place to live.

Talking about global warming; it has already had a devastating effect on our planet. Rising tides, forest fires, drought, glacial melt and a variety of other natural disasters directly linked to climate change can be seen on scales never before documented. The clock is ticking for strong, binding and immediate international legislation to preserve the sanctity of our Earth and protect those who call it home. In the count-down to the U.N. Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen this December, it is crucial that we send a clear message to decision makers. President Obama and other world leaders have a responsibility to take decisive action before time runs out.

That’s where the International Day of Climate Action comes in. An initiative by 350.org, it’s an awakening call wherein citizens, scientists, and world leaders in 181 countries will take to nearby streets, mountains, parks, and reefs today to demand strong action on climate change. In over 140 countries, 350.org and a coalition of partner groups will join together with people all over the world. Over1700 actions will take place letting decision makers in Copenhagen know that the people demand real change! It is up to YOU to you to be the change we wish to see.  5,242 rallies and creative demonstrations will take place, all of them centered on the number 350, to draw attention to 350 parts per million (ppm), which an overwhelming number of scientists now insist is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

In major cities, people will form giant 3s or 5s or 0s, in a “planet-scale game of Scrabble. Smaller scale actions include climbers with banners high on the slopes of Mt. Everest and teams of divers with signs on the Great Barrier Reef or the coral off the coast of Oman in the Persian Gulf. Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian campaigners are coordinating a joint action along the shores of the Dead Sea. There will be more than 1,800 actions across the U.S., as well as 300 in China, 200 in Africa, and more than 150 in India. 350 ppm originally came from a NASA research team headed by American climate scientist James Hansen, which surveyed both real-time climate observations and emerging paleo-climatic data in January of 2008. Their peer-reviewed article concluded that above 350ppm co2 the earth’s atmosphere couldn’t support “a planet similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.”

The Day of Action is a part of an effort to build the world’s biggest mandate for bold climate action. Before the Global meets on Climate Change takes place, let us awaken ourselves to this gruesome truth!