The Road to 350 is Paved with Solutions

Written by Caroline / 15 October 2009 / Read Caroline's latest blog entries.

This post is part of Blog Action Day, 8414 blogs and counting, all writing about climate change on the same day and together calling the US to take serious action on climate. Sign their petition here.

Here in India, we started on the Road to 350 a long time ago. It’s been one year since I quit my job and decided to drive across India in solar powered and electric cars with 350 literally written all over them (that’s our Revalution to the right!), to show the world that there is a Road to 350 ppm (the safe upper limit of CO2 in the atmosphere). We know that The Road to 350 is a path paved with solutions that are beautiful, powerful, and inspiring. We worked to demonstrate that there is no silver bullet, there is no single solution — that there are 350 and counting! The Road to 350 drives straight through October 24, straight through COP15, and straight onto the future that we are creating every day we wake up and commit to being the change. As it gets closer to October 24, I’m more and more inspired by those actions planned that are showing what the Road to 350 looks like – what our world of solutions will be! We hope you can join us on 10/24 on the Road to 350.

One of my all time favorite 350 actions is the image taken in Granada, Spain, where Rene turned solar cookers into a gleaming visual representation of 350 as part of his Sahara project bringing solar ovens to the region of North Africa. It reminded me of the incredible solar cookers all across India that we saw, and of course of the day that Anna cooked Maggi noodles on the roof of Manzil; our time in Vasant Kunj solar festival when women cooked pakora for all of us; or eating solar cooked food at Deepak Gadhia's tribal girls school in Gujarat. We saw so many solutions that I hope these organizations will highlight similarly on October 24. It doesn't have to be a 350 made of solar cookers, but a 350 made of pakoras cooked by the sun!! I am grateful to Rene for showing just how many people will benefit from these incredible machines, saving our forests and our air!

Tantoh Nforbah and his community group, Save Your Future Association, in northwestern Cameroon planted flowers with the message "CO2 350 PPM" to promote carbon reductions, community development and sustainable agriculture in the region, while 350 Dominicana gathered to help with a local reforestation project and take a 350 action photo. All around the world, and all across Delhi, people are planning to plant or distribute 350 trees in their neighborhoods, their schools, or their cities.

In the City of Mandurah in Western Australia, they will be celebrating October 24th through a '350 Bulb Swap' - where they will be swapping 350 incandescent bulbs for energy efficient CFL bulbs. The event will be held at the Sustainable Mandurah Home, a modern hands-on display home where, after they have swapped their bulbs, visitors can learn how to make their home more cost effective (through energy efficiency measures) and environmentally sensitive.

In the Czech Republic, these students collected garbage from a park, created a 350 out of the bottles they found and created floating art. They not only cleaned up a neighborhood but converted garbage into a usable, beautiuful by-product. It's so exciting to see these solutions in action!

In Delhi, we'll be working with waste pickers to organize a similar kind of action, collecting garbage from five of Delhi's major historical sites, and turning it into 350 art in front of Delhi's (and India's) most prominent landmarks. We'll also be painting garbage cans and dustbins, calling for action on an urban level.

All around the world, organizers are planning cycle rallies to celebrate alternative transportation and to demonstrate the power of two wheels to move around the world! Just as in that amazing 350.org video, cyclists rode to the pyramids to celebrate in this incredible image. In Bordeaux, to the right, they've created a 350 of cycles and a giant heart to show just how much love and compassion the movement has! They've been celebrating monthly with carbon neutral potlucks, with a giant one planned for October 24th.

October 24th is an incredibly opportunity to celebrate the actions we are already taking to make this planet a more incredible and sustainable place. All around, on October 24, we'll be organizing events to spread the message about climate change and the need for climate action, demanding that global leaders invest in our future by contributing to a fair, ambitious and binding deal in Copenhagen -- one that will create a green economy for our future, while protecting the survival of all people and all nations.