Post date: Sep 11, 2010 11:4:53 PM
Dear Those-Of-You-Who-Are-Good-With-Words,
Last week as fires raged through two communities near (San Bruno) and dear (Boulder) to me, I thought about how natural gas, like oil, explodes—and wildfires are worse now because the snowpacks are melting. Disaster after disaster, I keep noticing how our fuel consumption and climate change create these chain reactions.
Weekly, if not daily, I feel like running around, waving my arms, and screaming my head off like Chicken Little. But social norms are stronger than science and I, like most people, have a greater fear of being shrill than I do of drowning in rising seawater. So I bite my tongue and go shopping for fluorescent lightbulbs. But sooner or later I have to speak up. We all do. The earth is in a horrifying transition and we all have to deal with it.
I finally found a place to start. I found a number, a single fact, that I can wrap my brain around. Three-fifty. 350ppm is the amount of CO2 that scientists agree is the maximum upper limit that our atmosphere can handle without cataclysmic results. Okay, so we are currently at 390ppm. (Scream scream, wave wave.) But knowing this, our direction is clear: DOWN.
I've joined a group called 350.org that is organizing a Global Work Party on October 10th (10/10/10). All around the world, people will be out there showing their leaders that we, the people, are not afraid to get to work. All around the world, people are doing ten things that day to make a difference.
I’d like to invite all writers—professional, habitual, or otherwise—to put your fingers to the keys that day, as the rest of the world puts shoulders to the wheel. Whatever your medium, use it. Write an essay, a poem, a story, a letter, a column, a song, a screenplay—whatever your regular business might be. If you have a place you can publish, so much the better. If you have the ear of someone with influence, get their attention. Because the more we talk about 350, the more this number will get out of the science blogs and into mainstream thinking. And I would like to believe there is someone out there who will find the magic words that will take this issue beyond partisan politics and make climate control an urgent common goal.
I also invite you to join Write 350 on Redroom, Facebook, AND/or 350.org—and/or start your own instance of Write 350 wherever writers meet up. Share these sites. Ask for ideas on how or where to write. Ask your students, your friends, your colleagues to share their own feelings, fears, ideas or inspirations about what is happening and what we can do. Share them with us! Post links to your writing, tell us what you're doing, so others can be inspired by you.
Please pass this on. If we can get 350 writers to write on 10/10/10, maybe we can get 350,000 lightbulbs (fluorescent, of course), to turn on in people's heads.
Kristen