“This is huge. A head of state has never rejected a major fossil fuel project because of its climate impacts before. The president’s decision sets the standard for what climate action looks like: standing up to the fossil fuel industry, and keeping fossil fuels in the ground.”
— Bill McKibben
The Climate Action Group, 350.org, was founded by Bill McKibben and a group of university friends in 2008. The number 350 refers to the concentration of CO2 molecules in the atmosphere — 350 parts per million (ppm) — beyond which it was believed we must not go if we hoped to hold global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. It was chosen in consultation with NASA Climatologist James Hansen.
In 2015, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere exceeded 400 ppm for the first time in millions of years. It is reported to have reached that concentration more rapidly than at any time in the history of the planet.
Scientists have been concerned about CO2 and its effect on environmental warming since the 1950s, if not earlier. They took the topic public in 1988, but few people outside the scientific community noticed. Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” upped the ante on public awareness in 2006, and 350.org, in 2008, provided a rallying point for those who wanted to do something but didn’t know where to start.
Community Supported Organizer, Carlo Voli of Edmonds, was one of more than 1,200 people arrested in front of the White House while protesting the Keystone XL Pipeline in 2011. I, along with a number of other Washingtonians, also answered the call issued by 350.org, to stand and risk arrest in a rolling protest over the course of two weeks.
A few months later, some 10,000 activists surrounded the White House — if we can’t occupy it, we’ll surround it — and marched around and around. Vashon Island’s “Backbone Campaign” was there with their “Artful Activism.”
In September 2014, an estimated 400,000 people took to the streets of New York to march in solidarity — all ages, creeds, colors, denominations and persuasions — to elevate the Global Warming/Climate Change isse. First Nations Peoples played a significant role there, as they have in any number of locations around North America. My wife and I were there.
Some may even remember a small action that took place in Everett’s Delta Yard last September. I know I do.
These, and many other actions by individuals and groups large and small, brought us to this place and time, when a head of state takes an unprecedented action because of its impact on the climate.
Amazing, say I.
Of course, it is only one such win, with an untold number of challenges we are also engaged in, and more yet to come.
Jackie Minchew lives in Everett.
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