Tonight I went to a lecture on climate change by Bill McKibben of 350.org. Where most climate change lectures focus on the case for climate change and its impacts, McKibben glossed over all that and talked about the 350ppm benchmark (which we are already above) and the need to get CO2 concentrations back below that level. His message was that climate change is not a problem for the future, for our children - it is happening now, and we have only a limited window of time to turn things around before it becomes irreversible on a human timescale.
But that was just the preamble - the real focus of his lecture was on what we can do about it. And here, he was very clear: changing lightbulbs is not enough. Individual action is not enough. We need a (high) price on carbon, and the only way we will get that is by some sort of international agreement setting sufficiently strong targets. To make that happen, we need to build a movement to pressure our politicians and make them understand that there will be electoral consequences if they fail to act. And that's what 350.org is about - building that movement, and coordinating a global day of action on Saturday, October 24, in the leadup to the Copenhagen summit.
Due to the magic of time zones, New Zealand will be leading that struggle. So, what we do here can make a difference - not just locally, but to the entire world. In Vermont, a mere 1,000 protestors were able to force all their House and Senate candidates - even the Republicans who had been saying "we need more scientific data" - to sign up for deep emissions cuts (it turns out the "scientific data" they needed was data on how much it would cost them at the ballot box if they did't). We need to mirror that here in New Zealand. We need to make our politicians afraid - afraid of being voted out on their arses if they continue the same old tactics of delay and denial.
If you'd like to help in this, go and sign up at 350.org.nz. And if you are in Raglan, Hamilton, Waiheke or Auckland, go along and see McKibben talk there. It's well worth the time.