The 350 Challenge petition presentation at Parliament, Dec 4th 2008
Click on the thumbnails to see larger images.
Saturday 6th of December 2008 is the International Day of Action on Climate Change. It is a day for communities to come together to take action on climate change and, in doing so, call on world leaders to take urgent action.
On Thursday 4th December, students from several Wellington secondary schools presented a petition to the Minister for Climate Change, Nick Smith, at Parliament. These young people are all representatives of the 350 Challenge group.
350 is an important number; 350 parts per million (ppm) is the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere that is safe for our planet. Unfortunately the current concentration is at 387ppm, and has been increasing due to human activities. Luckily the effect of this CO2 overshoot takes a while to kick in, but we only have a decade or two or else we risk becoming an ice-free planet, which would seriously destabilise our climate systems, cause sea-levels to rise, acidify the oceans and so on.
The 350 Challenge is not the typical campaign; it is an invitation and a challenge to join the nationwide conversation about how NZ can reach the 350ppm target, and who we could be for the world in the challenge to tackle climate change.
Jeanette, along with politicians from other parties responsible for climate change issues, spoke to the crowd on Parliament's lawn. She will also be at the 350 Climate Action Festival to be held at Waitangi Park in central Wellington, 11am-4pm on Saturday 6 December. See you there.
