350

Her opfordrer Bill McKibben os alle til at holde fri og fejre årets 350. dag med den store fremgang for 350. Som god numerolog kan man kun tilføje, at der i dag også er 350 aktivist-arbejdsdage til stats- og regeringscheferne tørner sammen i Bellacentret, ikke en dag for meget. Det lader til at de muslimske delegerede til COP15 har skaffet os endnu en uges respit, idet COP15 nok udskydes en uge for at imødekomme deres ønske om at kunne fejre ramadanens afslutning, eid-festen, i familiens skød. Om et år og fire dage ved vi altså om vi er købt eller solgt. Lad os bruge den tilmålte tid til lave så megen ståhej, at de ikke skal få lov til at glemme 350, som nyder større opbakning dag for dag.

Friends,

We’re celebrating a new holiday around the office today: it’s the 350th day of the year, and since we’re numerologists, we pretty much have to mark the occasion.

Actually, it’s most appropriate, because we have more to celebrate today than any time since our campaign began a year ago. Thanks to all of your hard work in the last year, the news that this is the most important number in the world has begun to spread.

We saw just how far on Friday, in Poznan, Poland.  At the end of otherwise dreary UN Climate Talks, Al Gore gave a big speech to everyone there. It was well-received–but by far the longest and loudest applause came when he announced that he too has joined the 350 bandwagon. “Even a goal of 450 parts per million, which seems so difficult today, is inadequate,” said Gore, adding we “need to toughen that goal to 350 parts per million.”

Those few words changed the course of the climate debate. We now have the most important political figure in the global warming world agreeing with the most important scientific figure, James Hansen, that 350 has got to be the target. It was a brave thing for Gore to do–it would have been far easier not to upset the process, even though its sleepwalking towards a treaty too tame to do any good. Instead, Al Gore told the truth.

Telling the truth–it’s what we all need to do for the year to come. We’re more excited than ever about our plans for a a big mobilization in 2009, and we’ll be in touch soon to make sure you’re ready to go.

But not today. Today, no links to click, or e-mails to send. Just a well-deserved moment of celebration. You’ve helped start the process of changing the world.

Thanks for all you do,

Bill McKibben, for the 350.org crew

P.S. One more reason to celebrate: thanks in part to many of you signing on, over 80 countries endorsed the “Survival Pledge” last week, securing its inclusion in a key UN summary document.  This is no small milestone–the survival principle offers the most vulnerable countries in the world a solid platform moving forward.  Many thanks for doing your part.