Green | December 14, 2009 | 4 comments

A WEEKEND OF PROTESTS

Image
CBD_Climate
Over the weekend, church bells rang across the globe at 3:50 p.m. in their respective time zones, up to 100,000 people marched through the streets of Copenhagen and about 1,000 were detained, and here in San Francisco, a soggy, stalwart band of Center for Biological Diversity supporters, along with Organizing for America volunteers, Greenpeace, and the Mobilization for Climate Justice, came together under a single banner: WE NEED A REAL DEAL IN COPENHAGEN NOW!

What’s a real deal? One that’s ambitious and grounded in science, and that means no more than 350 ppm of CO2. One that’s just and fair, and that means nations largely responsible for carbon pollution need to take the lead in curbing that pollution and cleaning up the mess. And one that’s binding, meaning political promises without legally binding commitments won’t fly.

Before our vigil in front of San Francisco’s City Hall, we had meetings with the staff of Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. We delivered a Center petition with nearly 30,000 signatures on it calling for 350 ppm, maintaining all of the Clean Air Act’s capacity to curb carbon pollution, and eliminating or greatly reducing offsets.

We also delivered a letter from nearly 100 organizations supporting the Center and 350.org’s petition to the Environmental Protection Agency to cap carbon pollution at no more than 350 ppm under the Clean Air Act’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards program. If you belong to an organization, please consider asking your organization to sign on!

From the Senate offices, we marched through the constant drizzle to City Hall, passing several painfully cute holiday displays of polar bears as we went. These holiday depictions could soon be the only polar bears left on the planet if we don’t translate our symbolic love of the bears into concrete action to save their lives. Let’s keep up the pressure for a real deal in Denmark.

Check out our daily blog: The World On Thin Ice: Live From Copenhagen 2009 http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/climate_law_institute/350_or_bust/co...
  1. groups:
    Green
  2. tags:
    350PPM,  cop 15 blogger
  3.     
    |

4 comments // A WEEKEND OF PROTESTS

  • smallgod
    • 0
      smallgod  

    • Ugh. Political DRIVEL. Plant some trees. Send some money to a good charity. Pick a car that uses less gas. Don't allow politicians to have control of CO2 emissions! That's plain stupid! Ugh!!! I'm so sick of this!!!!

    • 2 years ago
  • futuregen
    • 0
      futuregen  

    • http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/04/AR2009120402605....

      Excerpt from article:
      "Demand a carbon-cap bill that mandates the number 350. That's the level of carbon pollution scientists say we must limit ourselves to: 350 parts per million of CO2 in the air. If we can stabilize the atmosphere at that number in coming decades, we should be able to avoid the worst-case scenario and preserve a planet similar to the one human civilization developed on. To get there, America will need to make deep but achievable pollution cuts well before 2020. And to protect against energy price shocks during this transition, Congress must include a system of direct rebates to consumers, paid for by auctioning permit fees to the dirty-energy companies that continue to pollute our sky."

    • 2 years ago
  • futuregen
more from Green:
from the community

top videos