181 Countries Joined the International Day of Climate Action

Tuesday, 27 October 2009 09:08

More than 5,000 climate actions in 181 countries took place on Saturday, October 24. The International Day of Climate Action became one of the most widespread days of political action in history, reaching the front pages on newspapers all around the globe. Over 15,000 photos have been gathered from the day, and can be seen on Flickr.

The international 350.org campaign, united the public, media, NGOs and political leaders in support of the 350 goal, and coordinated a day of action. “But our goal is not to get news coverage – our goal is to cut carbon”, says the organizers behind the campaign.

The 350.org message – that those three digits are the most important number on the planet - has spread rapidly in the 18 months since scientists first published the finding that 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And after more than a year of mobilisation, activists on every continent gathered to send a message to the United Nations Climate summit taking place in Copenhagen in six weeks.

A Magic Number
In what 350.org founder Bill McKibben called a global game of Scrabble, hundreds of events highlighted the magic number in different ways. Check out this YouTube video, showing Kenyan children in Maasai Mara spelling out a singing 350, or the video from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where 20,000 school children marched for the campaign.

Also in Europe, creative and quite sensational actions took place. In Budapest, the famous Szèchenyi Baths turned up the heat and gathered more than 350 bathers who stripped down and simulated a warmer world. Barcelona mobilized churches throughout the city to ring bells 350 times at 8 pm, while 350 percussionists gathered to sound the demand for 350.

350 dancers gathered in the central square of Amsterdam, performing a massive swing dancing celebration for climate action. The Berliners in Berlin held a "Silent Climate Parade, while in London, tThe New Economics Foundation hosted The Bigger Picture summit, where the Big Blow brass orchestra marched along the Thames.

In Copenhagen people gathered in a massive circular bike parade to create a giant “0”, linking it with giant 3’s and 5’s around the world to demonstrate the global cooperation that will get us back to 350.

Check out more events at the 350.org webpage.