So, I’m breaking all my rules. I’m taking a detour from the history part of my road to greenness to jump to the here and now. Today I'm joining over 4,000 bloggers on Blog Action Day 2009 to talk a bit about the issue of climate change.
Why? We have a very big problem. Scientists say that 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. And we are now at 390.
There are many small steps each of us can take to reduce our own carbon footprint. We can walk, take the bus or train, or bike, when possible (and safe to do so). And when the car is absolutely necessary, we can pool the trips. We can shop wisely – reducing the amount of packaging in the items we purchase, and the number of miles the food we buy has traveled to get to us. We can shop farmers’ markets, helping the environment and the local economy. We can unplug when appliances are not in use. We can use less paper. We can buy less stuff and recycle more…
You get the idea. None of these things is difficult to do. And the more people make these choices, the bigger the difference.
But we can also use our voices to call for the leaders of the world to take some larger steps. There is a global movement to send a message to the Copenhagen Climate in Conference in December that we need to get CO2 back to 350 ppm. You can read more about it at 350.org, which has declared October 24, 2009 as the International Day of Climate Action. There are over 3000 actions registered in 158 countries for that date, just 9 days away. I will be at the one on the New Haven Green, symbolically ringing our church’s bell at 3:50 and talking with others about ways we can work towards getting back to 350.
Please join me that day, wherever you find yourself.
