The number 350 is "civilization's last chance"

Wow! Really? A 10% decrease doesn't sound like a lot...

There are so many ways that we, the people, can help. We must shrink our carbon footpring - and it's not that difficult. Consume less, throw away less and grow more of our own food.

patsarts, please read the article. Achieving 350 requires a heckuva lot more than growing your own food and throwing less away. It requires that our country and other countries act NOW to make this a priority. It's major, it's happening, and it's real.

if we keep expanding the population exponentially, just like bacteria and rats, then NOTHING will save us, not even FEMA.

the unlikely trojan?

Doesn't it seem this is in spite of the spectre that is the idea of power in the world and that the man with the big stick says what goes, that perhaps in order to avoid an energy advantage to perceived enemies that we'll have to command a majority of that available energy now and into the future, granted how imperialistic the U.S. is...how ironic that this seems to conspire toward a world issue requiring world "cooperation" and perhaps a "new world order" to meet perhaps even more aggressive "standards" and guidelines in future demands. I wonder that the current usurpational trend in government to take and trample our Constitutional rights to privacy isn't some conditioning for such an "order" to take place. I know, it always seems outrageous...until it happens.

I love this to pieces! I'm pumped, I can't wait to spread the word!

Huh?

When posing a problem such as the above, it's helpful to follow it up with some proposed solution. Then we can do something about it — or try.

Hi one2, you gotta read the article posted!

Scary... Maybe the Mayans had it right? Maybe 2012 is the end?

We're going to run out of food and water long before they can tax the into poverty with a silly carbon tax. Listen to both sides of the argument before falling for the fear monger propaganda.

I wish people would take enough initiative to do things that are good for the planet instead of waiting for it to be forced on them. We're a world of procrastinators, guys.

maasanova, I WISH it were just "fear monger" propaganda. I really do. But the facts are out there. The thing about global warming is, there is a "tipping point" -- where human activity pushes the natural course of things over the edge. A good example of this is when the polar ice caps melt, more of the ocean is exposed. Before, the white snow reflected 80% of the sun's rays back into the atmosphere. But the blue ocean absorbs the rays, accelerating the warming and the melting. It speeds up. That's why the need to do something now is so urgent.

Like I said, without water we will all die. Al Gore and the rest of the global warming cultists should focus on real threats like chemicals in the water supply, depleted uranium in the atmosphere and that's not to mention all the bombs and gas the military uses all over the world.

But it seems the propaganda is clearly working. Enjoy your slavery.

What will this world be like in 50 years

The 'magic number 350' is just a little phrase that will be used to convince people we can reach goals that will somehow slow global warming. I guess it is fine to have easily understood numbers and catch phrases to promote change; but 'the number 350' and other slogans should not be taken seriously in a scientific sense.

Sorry, but it looks like the big one will have to happen first. And the presidential candidates' plans don't even begin to address keeping that number at 350. So where is the pressure on them? It isn't even discussed. Obama is seen as perfect and McCain not to be talked to about this because he is a Republican, so how can we have political progress if people who want this won't put pressure on them to do the right thing? We need the laws changed. We need to stop coal plants, nuke plants, and we need to call on businesses and more states to follow suit. We aren't doing that on the whole as a people, and we are pushing than number up because of it. How many even here who claim to support Obama have written him on the topic of climate change or even discuss it all that much? And massanova, climate change is also effecting our water resources. These crises are interrelated.

Maybes Current TV could send us some wind turbines so that we can carry on watching Current TV while the rest of the world falls to pieces.

it had been explained to me some time ago that energy is a vital backbone to our economy. particularly oil and gas, in my state. approx. 25% of the revenues from oil for instance supposedly go to many public works like education. so much that if the state didn't have that income, we may not have public schools in my state. one has to take into account that so many other important things ride on the success of such industries... More than laws, it seems we need a complete paradigm shift. Maybe a few.

I'd agree action is necessary on some scale...even if it's this 350 and that kyioto deal or whatever...but it's important to think critically about these things before acting as well; as some seemingly viable solutions could create a new order or crises we haven't seen and may not know how to respond to either. In some due caution, let's not forget scientists had also proposed covering the poles with ash as a solution for the impending doom of global cooling not so long ago.

Either way, there will be consequences to deal with I'm sure, and I bet not everyone is gonna like 'em...

Well, let's make sure that when our next President is in office that all of our voices are heard that we want the United States to be a leader in reduction of carbon dioxide, a leader in educating the public and the world to unite in saving our planet.

I agree. If the US wants it's respect back in the world's eyes as a compassionate entity, it must take immediate action to work at bringing that number to 350 by way of thousands upon thousands of examples. This article is a major warning that, if ignored, spells humanity's doom. It's time to focus on this generation's future, not the next or the one after that. If we don't get off our collective rear ends, there won't be any longterm future to worry about.
Get over the fear and get motivated.

I will be calling the White House EVERY DAY regardless of who is in it once January 21st rolls around. And we need that in the millions to happen. No free rides when it comes to our planet.

i'll miss this place!

*sniff* Me, too. Let's not speed the process any longer.

Park your cars, don't ride buses, walk. Don't buy food shipped in trains or trucks or raised on farms that plow with anything other than a mule with a methane muffler. Unplug your computers, cell phones and ipods. Turn off the lights - forget buying mercury laden CF bulb manufactured in China by coal fired factories and shipped across the ocean in freighters burning bunker oil. Flip the breaker on your A/c and furnaces. Cold? Sit in the sun. Hot? Sit in the shade.

10% decrease in CO2 is good? Not if you are a tree.

Julie Soller is correct. There is a tipping point i.e, a point at which a system that is on the edge of balance can be pushed into imbalance by a relatively minor event. Frankly, I think were already beyond the point of return and it's a matter of trying to live with, and repair to the extent possible, the damage that's already occurring.

It sad that most people won't wake up tot he fact that global warming is real until a chuck of Greenland slips into the ocean creating a tidal wave that floods most of the eastern coast of the US and Europe.

Julie Soller is an amateur film maker, not a climatologist. While the concept of a tipping point may be valid in a closed system, dentifying that point is not simple. Humans have studied weather since we have been on this earth and yet we cannot predict the temperature accurately three days into the future. The data used to support breathless panic theories foisted upon society by those who would profit from Carbon Credits (Al Gore, et.al.), those seeking the destruction of Western Industry (Radical Islam) or those just seeking power and control in America (liberal democrats) is demonstrably poor and the data that does exist extends back only a few hundred years in a natural system that has been powered by the sun for several billion years. Ice core samples show a much different picture of global climate cycles.

Finally there is a huge difference between thinking and knowing. Beware falling prey to the secularist delusion that mankind is omnipotent.

Oh, and that would have to be a huge chunk of ice to "cause a tidal wave that floods most of the eastern coast of the US and Europe".

Ever wonder why "Greenland" is covered in ice and "Iceland" is relatively free of ice? Because conditions there were much different when the Vikings colonized the area only 1000 years ago.

An inconvenient truth: http://digg.com/world_news/Cooling_Trend_Puts_Global_Wa...

I suggest we should worry about something we can and should change, like the effect on society of paying people to consume who don't produce (welfare, fairness, socialism, government health care). Read about Jamestown, and Plymouth for fairly recent close-to-home examples of that failed system.

Thank you morriwe, for pointing out that I am not a climatologist! Ha ha, but your point about the "little ice age" that devastated the Viking colonies, has nothing to do with the magnitude of the climate change we're about to experience. I find that most people would rather bury their heads in the sand than realize it.

For Pete's sake, don't take my word for it, take the findings of thousands of scientists much smarter than both me and you who have tracked and studied the various effects of this massive, human-caused phenomenon, from atmospheric changes, to glaciers melting, to ice cores reflecting CO2 levels that are higher than they have been in 440,000 years. For example:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3792209.stm

It's really easy to sit on the sidelines and naysay and claim fear mongering. But it's more courageous to take action. Do not go gently into this hot night, my friend.

Superb post, Julie! I'd like to see more about this, possibly even the specific activities that can reduce the number of ppm, etc. Such as plant a tree, it reduces the ppm by 0.0001 something like that. Now we have a specific goal.

hi julie,
will list on the AF July "Health" Newswire and Forum sections on AF MAG(www.theartistsforum.org) better late than never.