Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church

The International Day of Climate Change was on October 24, 2009. People all over the world demonstrated to raise conscious about 350. It was organized by http://www.350.org.

Members of MDUUC took part in an event organized by local groups -- “Tell It On A Mountain.” A human necklace was formed around the summit of Mt. Diablo.

One of the participants was Paul Armstrong of the Green Group. (Pictures provided by Paul.)

Q. What does 350 mean?

A. 350 is parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Q. Are we currently above or below 350?

A.  The atmosphere is currently higher than that -- around 390 ppm, but that number changes (goes up with time).

Q. What is the importance of 350?

A. 350 ppm is believed to be the maximum ppm which will not negatively impact the earth due to global warming.  Also there is concern that too much global warming will result in runaway heating due to decomposition of compounds in the permafrost in the Arctic.  Carbon dioxide is a proxy for other more harmful compounds such as methane which once released will impact global warming more than just CO2.  A further problem is that ice tends to reflect the light and heating from the sun.  As the ice melts in the Arctic, warming will accelerate.  Once appreciable ice melts in Greenland and the Antarctic, the ocean levels will rise and flood low lying islands and shorelines throughout the world.

Q. Who participated in the Day of International Climate Change and why?

A. There are over 100 countries that participated on the "International Day of Climate Action".  The purpose was to influence world leaders who will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to draft a new global treaty on reducing emissions.  It was well organized internationally, but the organization was 350.org set up for this purpose.

Q. Tell us about the event on Mt. Diablo.

A. “Tell It On the Mountain” was one of the many events which took place worldwide on 10-24.  The event was well organized -- about 12 busses carried the people up and down and arrangements were made to take pictures by helicopter.