350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis—the solutions that science and justice demand. The mission is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet.
The 350.org message--that those three digits are the most important number on the planet--has spread rapidly in the 18 months since scientists first published the finding that 350 parts per million (ppm) is the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Now, activists on every continent are preparing for the most widespread day of climate action ever, a global event designed to send a charge into this December's United Nations Climate Meetings in Copenhagen.
The 350 target--much lower than most governments and environmental groups previously planned -- emerged in the winter of 2008, as scientists noted effects of global warming, such as the rapid melt of Arctic sea ice, happening decades ahead of schedule. A ground-breaking study led by NASA scientists concluded that if there was more than 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere, we couldn't have a planet "similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted."1 Since we're already well past that level--at 390 ppm and rising 2 ppm a year--these new findings galvanized action around the world. An increasing number of top scientists are supporting 350 -- including Rajendra Pachauri, the UN's top climate scientist who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming. Pachauri said in August, “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."
International Day of Climate Action on 24 October, 2009
Meanwhile, youth activists, faith groups, and others around the world are preparing an international day of 350-themed rallies and demonstrations on October 24. Events will take place from high in the Himalayas to underwater off the Maldive Islands, where the nation's president will lead 350 scuba divers in one of the planet's first underwater protests. So far, over 1400 actions are planned in over 100 countries.
The October 24 rallies come six weeks before the crucial Copenhagen climate talks, where 94 nations -- most of them poor and vulnerable to climate change--have already endorsed the 350 target. The timing is a crucial opportunity to reinforce the message that people from all over the globe are calling on world leaders to take dramatic and swift measures to accept 350 ppm as a necessary target for CO2 levels.