October 24, the International Day of Climate Action, has come and gone but the efforts by so many concerned citizens of the world were seen and heard! “Bring our CO2 levels back to 350ppm (from 387ppm) to mitigate or global warming crisis!!” we pleaded. 350.org helped facilitate some amazing events around the world, and I heard great feedback from participants including friends from as far away as India and as close as Denver, Colorado.

The 350.org group summarized the situation and the urgency surrounding it on their web site by stating:

“A year ago, our greatest climatologist—NASA’s James Hansen—and his team produced a landmark series of studies. They showed that if we let the amount of carbon in the atmosphere top 350 parts per million, we can’t have a planet “similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.”

The bad news is we’re already past that number—we’re at 390 parts per million, which is why the Arctic is melting, why drought is spreading across the planet, why people are already dying from diseases like dengue fever and malaria occurring in places where they’ve never been seen before.

The good news: that number gives us a target to aim for. When the world’s leaders meet in Copenhagen in December to reach agreement on a new climate treaty, we need them to go farther than they’ve planned to go: we need to make sure they’ll pay attention to the latest science and put forward a plan that gets us back to safety.”

If you want to get involved, there is still time. My top 3 favorite things you can do today to help mitigate this crisis include:

1. Learn more about climate change. There are some wonderful resources on the web. Also consider the PBS NOW special which aired this week on Bangladesh where, “Scientists’ project global seas will flood 20 percent of Bangladesh by 2030, stranding some 35 million climate refugees.” Another great resource is the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
2. Talk about it. I’m always amazed at how many people don’t believe the science behind this situation.

3. Reduce Your Carbon Footprint. For some guidelines on how to reduce your footprint starting now, check out this earth911 blog.
What ideas do you have to help prevent climate change? Please let us know by sharing your thoughts and adding your comments!