Eco-Friendly
Leigh Adamkiewicz
350: A Kinder Gentler Environmental Movement
How Much Pollution can one Atmosphere Take? Shouldn’t We Know?
What were you doing on October 24th 2009? Were you putting up your Halloween decorations? Complaining about the fast approach of a Northeastern Ohio winter? Planning what gifts you could get for Christmas?
Or were you, like millions people around the world, gathering for the International Day of Climate Action?
If you were left out of the loop, you’re probably also wondering what the International Day of Climate Action is. It’s a worldwide event that was sponsored by the ‘350’ movement, an international environmental group. The 350 movement takes its name from a recent answer to a long standing question: How much pollution can one atmosphere take?
Debates about how much pollution the earth’s atmosphere can absorb have been going on for decades. Some say the earth’s ability to absorb is nearly endless, some say we’ve already gone beyond the point of no return.
After much research, leading scientists now have a number: 350 parts per millionth. That’s the amount of particle pollution scientists have determined can be absorbed by our atmosphere without negative affects.
Yet the atmospheric measurements from across the planet are currently at 382 parts per millionth.
And we’re already starting to feel the difference. Longer mosquito seasons have been reported in countries that are still fighting malaria and dengue fever. Longer droughts have come each year, causing food prices to rise and causing unrest in countries that are already fighting to feed its citizens. And then there is the increasingly weird weather – like the long-lasting hurricanes in the gulf coast. Or the recent dust storm in Australia that covered the entire east coast of the continent in a haze of apocalyptic red dust.
But the polls are showing that people are beginning to increasingly tune out warnings from environmental groups. The sheer amount of negative messages that have been coming out seem to be the reason. It’s admittedly hard to believe that the practices that have made our lives so much easier could be self destructive. Trying to believe the worst is made harder by organizations intent on scolding us for the way we’ve been living our lives.
350 is different.
The 350 movement does not require installation of solar panels or rain barrels. The 350 movement won’t look at you funny if you don’t buy organic produce. It won’t force you to stop flying, driving, or having coffee at Starbucks. It simply wants you to be aware… and to understand that your small choices, both the positive and the negative, have global effects.
Its main goal is to work within the system; to talk to the heads of governments and convince them to set limits on what big business puts into our air. But they also want to talk to anyone who is looking to make a positive change with a community of like-minded people to back them up.
And this isn’t an organization that simply promises international action. It pulls out its wallet and shows the family pictures. Go to the movement’s website at 350.org and the first thing you’ll see are pictures from that October day back in 2009. People from around the world are holding up 350 signs, jugs, hot-air balloons or standing in 350 formations. They’re from Brazil, Equator, India, the Galapagos, Australia, and beyond. They’re all ready to prove this isn’t an issue that can be passed off as left-wing politics or bleeding heart rhetoric. This is an issue the entire planet is concerned about. This is an issue where the entire planet is trying to take action.
In the ads the 350 movement has released – where their reasons are acted out with international symbols that need no multilingual skills to understand - the message is simple. It’s the little actions that got us here. If 30 million people throw out ‘just one’ plastic bottle instead of recycling it, it adds up. Just like 100 million people taking that car trip that they could have easily biked instead. And just like the annoying diet plan ads that come out right before New Year’s, we need to remind ourselves that we didn’t get here in one day. But unlike other movements, 350 knows we aren’t going to fix ourselves overnight. We need to start changing little attitudes and little actions to get big results.
What kinds of results? If we could bring down the pollutants in the atmosphere to 350 ppm, just 32 ppm from where we are now, the earth would be healthy and happy. There would be less cause for particle-based diseases, and less of a changing climate to contend with. And keeping the pollution at that level would not serious impact the advance of technology or human expansion. It wouldn’t dramatically change the way we live our lives.
But just as that one water bottle turns into 30 million, the small actions will make a bigger impact if more people are involved. I’m encouraging everyone who reads this to visit the 350 website and see what little action they can take to bring that oversized number down.
Or were you, like millions people around the world, gathering for the International Day of Climate Action?
If you were left out of the loop, you’re probably also wondering what the International Day of Climate Action is. It’s a worldwide event that was sponsored by the ‘350’ movement, an international environmental group. The 350 movement takes its name from a recent answer to a long standing question: How much pollution can one atmosphere take?
Debates about how much pollution the earth’s atmosphere can absorb have been going on for decades. Some say the earth’s ability to absorb is nearly endless, some say we’ve already gone beyond the point of no return.
After much research, leading scientists now have a number: 350 parts per millionth. That’s the amount of particle pollution scientists have determined can be absorbed by our atmosphere without negative affects.
Yet the atmospheric measurements from across the planet are currently at 382 parts per millionth.
And we’re already starting to feel the difference. Longer mosquito seasons have been reported in countries that are still fighting malaria and dengue fever. Longer droughts have come each year, causing food prices to rise and causing unrest in countries that are already fighting to feed its citizens. And then there is the increasingly weird weather – like the long-lasting hurricanes in the gulf coast. Or the recent dust storm in Australia that covered the entire east coast of the continent in a haze of apocalyptic red dust.
But the polls are showing that people are beginning to increasingly tune out warnings from environmental groups. The sheer amount of negative messages that have been coming out seem to be the reason. It’s admittedly hard to believe that the practices that have made our lives so much easier could be self destructive. Trying to believe the worst is made harder by organizations intent on scolding us for the way we’ve been living our lives.
350 is different.
The 350 movement does not require installation of solar panels or rain barrels. The 350 movement won’t look at you funny if you don’t buy organic produce. It won’t force you to stop flying, driving, or having coffee at Starbucks. It simply wants you to be aware… and to understand that your small choices, both the positive and the negative, have global effects.
Its main goal is to work within the system; to talk to the heads of governments and convince them to set limits on what big business puts into our air. But they also want to talk to anyone who is looking to make a positive change with a community of like-minded people to back them up.
And this isn’t an organization that simply promises international action. It pulls out its wallet and shows the family pictures. Go to the movement’s website at 350.org and the first thing you’ll see are pictures from that October day back in 2009. People from around the world are holding up 350 signs, jugs, hot-air balloons or standing in 350 formations. They’re from Brazil, Equator, India, the Galapagos, Australia, and beyond. They’re all ready to prove this isn’t an issue that can be passed off as left-wing politics or bleeding heart rhetoric. This is an issue the entire planet is concerned about. This is an issue where the entire planet is trying to take action.
In the ads the 350 movement has released – where their reasons are acted out with international symbols that need no multilingual skills to understand - the message is simple. It’s the little actions that got us here. If 30 million people throw out ‘just one’ plastic bottle instead of recycling it, it adds up. Just like 100 million people taking that car trip that they could have easily biked instead. And just like the annoying diet plan ads that come out right before New Year’s, we need to remind ourselves that we didn’t get here in one day. But unlike other movements, 350 knows we aren’t going to fix ourselves overnight. We need to start changing little attitudes and little actions to get big results.
What kinds of results? If we could bring down the pollutants in the atmosphere to 350 ppm, just 32 ppm from where we are now, the earth would be healthy and happy. There would be less cause for particle-based diseases, and less of a changing climate to contend with. And keeping the pollution at that level would not serious impact the advance of technology or human expansion. It wouldn’t dramatically change the way we live our lives.
But just as that one water bottle turns into 30 million, the small actions will make a bigger impact if more people are involved. I’m encouraging everyone who reads this to visit the 350 website and see what little action they can take to bring that oversized number down.
