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I started Climate of Change 74 days prior to COP15, thus its URL: http://74days.GOsustainably.com. My commitment to myself was to spend an hour a day learning more about climate change and COP15. On many of those days, an hour turned to three or four; time flies when you decide to share your quest with the world through a blog. More than 74 blog entries tell the story, and there are less than 29, make that 28, hours 'til the conference begins.

This may be the most important meeting of our lives, and there are many ways we can make sure leaders know we want them to consider it so. Below, are a few options. Please let me know, if you have other suggestions to add! I'll see you in the virtual world, as we come together with one loud voice for a climate of change as we go sustainably into the future. (I couldn't help myself!)

Check out Google Earth's look at climate change.

Have a pressing question about climate change? Submit it now on the YouTube COP15 channel and be part of the televised CNN/YouTube debate on Dec 15.

The World Wants a Real Deal - Global Day of Action Millions of global citizens have already signed the TckTckTck pledge and are ready for leaders to sign a fair, ambitious and binding deal at the UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen. At the mid-point of the climate negotiations on December 12, TckTckTck partners and supporters will unite in every corner of the world for the 'The World Wants a Real Deal'

Global Day of Action
Friday, December 11, 2009 - Sunday, December 13, 2009
5:00PM - 9:00PM
WORLD WIDE

The World Wants a Real Deal will target key decision-makers in Copenhagen through messaging events in the capitals of their home countries-- the US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, Sweden, the UK, Denmark, and the Arab Region -- complemented by similar messaging events in other countries and thousands of candlelight vigils. People will rally at temporary message walls erected in major cities around the globe to write messages, post photos and sign their names to the call for a Real Deal--one that is fair, ambitious and binding. Then at dusk, these message walls will also be the site of candlelight vigils, uniting with thousands of other candlelight vigils of every scale across the world.

11 Dec - Vigils for Survival
Stand in hope and solidarity with climate victims and the climate vulnerable.
12 Dec - Candlelight Vigils and Message Walls
Sign you name and post a photo. Tell leaders that you are part of a global call for a Real Deal.
13 Dec - Bell Ringing
Sound off on the urgency for climate justice as faith communities around the world ring bells and sound ceremonial horns in support of a Real Deal.

Read the findings of the climate meetings held in Bangkok and Barcelona this autumn. (a.k.a.: the Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention on its seventh session, held in Bangkok from 28 September to 9 October 2009, and Barcelona from 2 to 6 November 2009.)

Take the Training for GHG Inventory Review Experts

The UNFCCC secretariat is organizing a training course for GHG Inventory review experts planned for February - April 2010. Experts who would like to participate need first to be nominated to the roster of experts by their national focal point. Applications are being accepted now.

Read about US President Obama joining the UN conference at crucial moment.


COP15 Navigator iPhone app will help you stay tuned with the conference and be part of the action.

SEND YOUR CARD TOO!

We May Be Able to Avert Climate Change Yet

New findings released minutes ago on climate change indicate:

• International commitments to reduce carbon emissions may result in successfully limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees C.
• A binding, political agreement at the UN climate conference December 7th -18th in Copenhagen may amount to a '50-50 chance' of averting global climate catastrophe brought on by a human-made planetary temperature increase.

Professor Nicholas Stern (also known as Lord Stern of Brentford), who published the two reports announced today, is an economist and the author of the seminal Stern Report on the Economics of Climate Change, 2005, raising international concern about the economics of climate change.

"We cannot afford the cost of climate change." - Renowned Climate Economist, Lord Stern

Highlights addressed in his findings, as reported by Act on Copenhagen, strongly suggest that we may succeed at averting global climate catastrophe if countries meet the carbon emission reduction commitments they've made:

"It is possible to create a 50-50 chance of avoiding a rise in global average temperature of more than 2˚C, which many scientists regard as the threshold for 'dangerous' climate change....If you add up the most ambitious of the intentions to reduce emissions that have been expressed so far, they are, if delivered, around 2 billion tonnes higher than the overall 2020 goal....It is now clear that if countries move together and find extra margins of action, we can reduce global annual emissions to 44 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent by 2020, and set the world on a responsible path....If current ambitions for emissions reductions across the world are settled, financed and delivered, we may be only a few billion tonnes short of where we need to be."

Climate economist Lord Stern implores global leaders to cease and decrease the annual carbon dioxide (CO2) and green house gas (GHG) emissions from 47 billion tonnes in 2010, 44 billion tonnes in 2020, and significantly less than 20 billion tonnes in 2050.

Read more about the economics and Lord Stern's report, "Deciding our future in Copenhagen: will the world rise to the challenge of climate change," at Act on Copenhagen.

Dearest Contra-Climate-Changer,

Designers from The Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and Ebb+Flow have joined with bloggers at Climate of Change to create a powerful viral, contra-climate-change campaign. Our objective? To promote the signing of an ambitious, fair and binding agreement this December at the Copenhagen Climate Conference (COP15) and to encourage the reduction of carbon emissions through campaigns such as 10:10 Global (where individuals, governments and businesses agree to reduce 10% of their carbon emissions by 2010). Strategy, concept, artwork and specs will be completed in the next 10 days. All work on this historic project is 100% probono.

The showcase piece will increase pressure on political leaders--especially President Obama--to attend COP15 and sign a fair, ambitious and binding agreement at the Copenhagen Climate Conference this December.

Here's how you can help. If you are, or know, a flash developer to assemble the interface (from the already created graphics and specs,) please contact us ASAP. If you don't know Flash (or someone who does) you can still help by using the tool and sending it to your networks, once it is completed.

Only 38 days left,

Pamela

Earlier this week, the UK's Guardian reported that the European Union has agreed to cut emissions by 95% if COP15 agreement is made. This, amidst concerns that the US is not prepared to sign a new treaty during the crucial climate conference this December.

Let your senators, representatives and President Obama know that the world needs a US signature on a treaty for climate reductions as strong as science demands!

Sign Action Day.

Sign TckTckTck.

Sign 10:10.

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Dear Senator Feinstein:

You and I share a concern about the environment and climate change.

I am spending 1-6 hours per day for the 74 days leading up to COP15 (42 more to go!) because I care about our future. The US, China, India, EU and world need to sign a climate treaty this December. The EU has already agreed to 95% emissions reductions from 1990 levels by 2050, if an agreement is signed at COP15. I'm writing to urge you to ensure that the US do the same. We need to get carbon emissions in the atmosphere below 350 parts per million.

Please read my blog, which is a record of my efforts to raise awareness about climate change, and PLEASE ENSURE THE U.S. SIGNS A VIABLE, FAIR AND BINDING ACCORD AS STRONG AS THE IPCC RECOMMENDS THIS DECEMBER 2009 IN COPENHAGEN!

Pamela Snyder
http://74days.GOsustainably.com

MBAs from the Presidio Graduate School of Sustainability take a historic stand for capping global carbon emissions at 350 parts per million. (That's me in the bottom curve of the 3!) Tens of thousands of us made history, October 24, 2009.

Below is a letter from Bill McKibbin with related photos interspersed showing one of the first, and certainly the largest, global political actions in human history. This December we have the opportunity to make history again, at COP15. We only have to make sure our leaders go the direction we know is best. We must take the road away from carbon emissions, toward cleaner skies, reduced climate change, greater diversity of species, healthier ecosystems and happier humans.

Dear friend,

Today in New York was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

As I stood in Times Square and watched images flood in from every corner of the world on the big screens, I finally saw what a climate movement looked like -- and it looked diverse and creative and beautiful.

Please head to www.350.org and spend a few minutes watching the pictures. We need you to feel the strength of this movement, and to see how creative and committed this movement is, all across the planet.

It was so sweet to watch the day move around the globe, with thousands upon thousands of pictures appearing, sometimes a dozen a minute! There were photos of climbers high on the glaciers of Switzerland holding 350 banners, of bicycle parades from Copenhagen to San Francisco, of organizers in Papua New Guinea beating their church gong 350 times while churches in Barcelona rang their bells 350 times. Photos of activists protesting coal plants and celebrating wind farms, of students in 350 shirts repairing their flooded homes in Manila, and of thousands of people marching in the streets of Bogota and Kathmandu. Photos of people from different races and classes, religions and nationalities, coming together around a simple and powerful number to save our pl anet. Thousands took to the streets in Addis Ababa and Mexico City; we had huge parades in places like Togo and Seattle.

You were by far the biggest news story on Google, on CNN, on the front pages of newspapers around the planet. And these pictures were seen around the world, in newspapers from Beijing to Boston, on TV stations from New Delhi to New York, and on blogs, social networks, and websites across the internet.

Together, we've shown the world that a global climate movement is possible and set a bold new agenda for the upcoming United Nations Climate Meetings in Copenhagen this December. The 350 target is the new bottom line for climate action and world leaders must now meet that target.

We thought we would be tired after many sleepless nights planning this day, but in fact we're more energized than ever. We're preparing to deliver the photos and messages from your events to every national delegation to the United Nations on Monday, and planning to hand the photos to high-level ministers at upcoming climate negotiations in Barcelona and Copenhagen. So if you haven't uploaded your best pictures from the event yet, please do so right away by sending us an e-mail to photos@350.org with your photos attached, with your City, Country as the subject and the body as the action description.

Thank you more than we can possibly say. We'll (of course) be asking you to do lots more in the weeks ahead -- but today, lean back, relax, look through pictures at 350.org, and savor your accomplishment. You were part of what many journalists called "the most widespread day of political action the world has ever seen."

Together with millions around the world, you made a real difference already -- get ready to make much more in the days, weeks and months to come.

With hope,

Bill McKibben and the whole 350.org Team

P.S. As always, we ask that you share this movement any way you can--just telling all your friends and family and colleagues (and Facebook friends and Twitter followers in just a couple of clicks) to visit www.350.org is a great way to start. So many thanks for all that you do.

350 has become synonymous with environmental, social and economic responsibility:

• Environmentally, the number refers to the maximum carbon emissions the planet can bear (350 parts per million).


• Socially, the number points to the cultures that will be lost, communities devastated and wars fought, if we do not curb climate change, as populations scramble to meet basic needs of food, shelter and public health.


• Economically, 350 reminds of the astronomical cost of climate change, with Karina serving as a mere micro-example.

However, leaders are not yet committed. 43 days from now, COP15 (the Copenhagen Climate Conference) will occur as a last-ditch effort for a global emissions treaty. But, the Obama administration wants voluntary (as opposed to legally-binding) goals, the EU has failed to reach internal consensus with Eastern-block countries unwilling to commit, and China and India are joining together in a united step toward controlling carbon emissions with out the US and EU beside them.

October 24, 2009, we made history. Today, we must use our new-found global activism apparatus to continue to make 350 a house-hold topic of discussion. Leaders and businesses must recognize that we, their constituents and markets, will support them only if they support a viable future for everyone.

It is not acceptable if companies continue to make frivolous products that pump carbon into the air, triggering melting poles and rising tides that spread floods, famine and destruction. I do not want to fly to India, if it means the very people I'm coming to visit will be washed away by the climate change that ensues from the jet fuel it took to make the flight. I'm not suggesting we go back to living in caves. I'm suggesting we pressure our governments to subsidize development of waste-free, carbon-neutral technologies instead of harvesting old-growth forests or farming crops thrown away to keep prices high.
Don't worry: hypocrisy is the first step!