Our 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.
Our focus is on the number 350 – as in parts per million, the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. But 350 is more than a number – it’s a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.
History
350.org was founded by U.S. author Bill McKibben, who wrote one of the first books on global warming for the general public, and a team of university friends.
Together, they ran a campaign in 2007 called Step It Up that organized over 2,000 rallies at iconic places in all 50 states. These creative actions – from skiers descending a melting glacier to divers hosting an underwater action – helped convince many political leaders, including then Senator Barack Obama, to adopt our common call to action: cutting carbon 80% by 2050.
Now, 350.org is building on Step It Up’s model of creative activism and making it global.
Copenhagen
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international environmental treaty that was drafted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and spearheaded international efforts to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions.
As part of the Convention, the signatory countries have been hosting a series of conferences, the most famous of which was the Kyoto Conference (COP-3), in December 1997, which produced the Kyoto Protocol to commit signatories to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions to 5.2 percent below the level produced in 1990.
The latest Conference (COP-15) took place December 7-19, 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark. The goal of this conference was to produce an aggressive new agreement to take effect in 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.
The goal of the 350 campaign was originally to persuade world leaders attending the Copenhagen conference to accept the science on climate change and commit to reducing the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide from the current level of 390 parts per million to the maximum safe threshold of 350 parts per million.
350.org Now
The 350.org team took that message to the conference – but the conference fell apart because some nations weren’t yet ready to start making serious cuts in their emissions.
So now we’re building an even bigger and stronger movement. On October 10, 350.org is helping to host a Global Work Party, with thousands of communities setting up solar panels or digging community gardens or laying out bike paths.
Those projects are designed to send a sharp message to our political leaders: We’re getting to work, what about you?
