A Message from Bill McKibben

[Stephanie Davis]

Dear friends,

We're writing to everyone on the 350.org United States mailing list because it's crunch time.

We learned earlier today that President Obama will convene a meeting at the White House tomorrow with a group of key senators to hammer out an energy and climate proposal to take to the floor of the Senate in the next six weeks. 

Whatever that proposal contains, it won't do everything that we need--but it might at least get us started.  The danger is that Senators will just do the easy stuff, and remain too timid to seize this moment to pass truly far-reaching legislation.

So it would be very useful to call your Senators and make the following points:

1) We need a bill that puts an economy-wide cap on carbon--all carbon, from utilities and factories and cars and anything else that burns coal, gas, and oil. And we need those caps based on science--they have to start us on the route back towards 350 and towards a safe climate.

2) We won't be fooled by a bill that merely addresses the need for oil drilling regulations or incentives for renewable energy. These things are so obvious that they require no political courage; the only way to honor the suffering in the Gulf is to make deep progress on ending our use of fossil fuel--and that progress must include an economy-wide cap on carbon.

If you need inspiration, take a moment to look through the photos from Hands Across the Sand last Saturday, when communities across the country took a united stand against offshore drilling and for clean energy.

If you need motivation, consider this: in the past six weeks, seven countries have set new all-time temperature records. Our friends at 350 Pakistan report that the mercury hit 129 degrees last week.

The planetary heat is on, for real. We need to put the political heat on, right now.

Many thanks,

Bill McKibben for 350.org

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350.org is an international grassroots campaign that aims to mobilize a global climate movement united by a common call to action. By spreading an understanding of the science and a shared vision for a fair policy, we will ensure that the world creates bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. 350.org is an independent and not-for-profit project.

What is 350? 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM-a "people powered movement" that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet.