Florida faces some of the most extreme effects of a 2 degree Celsius (3.5 degree Farenheit) temperature change - and there is debate that it WILL happen in the next 40 years. International Day of Climate Change on October 24 if our chance to confine the change to 2 degrees!

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"We know what needs to be done. We cannot wait until it is too late. We cannot wait until what we value most is lost." These words, which end The St. James' Palace Memorandum, written in May 2009 by Nobel Laureates who gathered to call for a global deal on climate change, sum up what motivates Bobette Wolesensky, Greenpeace Lead Activist from Boca Raton, Florida.

Wolesensky, a professor at Palm Beach Community College who has been active in the environmental movement from its early days, says that when NASA's Jim Hansen and his team released data in 2008 showing that concentrations of more than 350 parts per million (ppm) of carbon in the atmosphere are not compatible with "the planet on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted" (Target Atmospheric CO2. James Hansen et al, Open Atmosphere Science Journal, 2008) she started paying attention to the science of climate change and grew more and more alarmed that no one seemed to be noticing the potential disaster we are facing.

"As of September 2009 we are at 387 ppm and that's scary to me! Scientists know that this will result in a temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius by the middle of this century. Assuming we can cut CO2 emissions dramatically in the next 5 years so that carbon emissions peak in 2015, we have a chance of keeping the increase to 2 degrees. If we miss the target, it's very likely that runaway tipping points will be triggered, and our planet will fight to rid itself of the toxins - and species, including humans, may not have time to adapt to the rapid temperature increases we could experience. In Florida, we are on the front lines of the human, economic and environmental devastation - and we don't seem very motivated to ask our leaders to do anything about that!" (World Wildlife Federation, 2009)

When asked why she's scared, Wolesensky recites a list of effects Florida is likely to feel in the next 20, 40 and 80 years. "Keep in mind, she says, that the 20 year impact is in my lifetime; the 40 year impact is in the lifetime of my students; and the 80 year impact will be the legacy my generation and my students generation leaves if we wait until it is too late." This list includes:

• Sea level rises of 11 inches by 2025, 23 inches by 2050, and over 45 inches by 2100 unless dramatic reductions are made in greenhouse gas emissions (Tufts University Study, 2007)

• By 2060, 9% of Florida's land area (4700 square miles) may be submerged by these increases with extensive flooding in the Keys (Monroe County) and Miami-Dade

• One in ten - that's ONE IN TEN - of Florida's residents would face relocation because their homes would be underwater in 2060

• A 27 inch sea level rise (sometime between 2050 and 2060) would submerge over $130 billion worth of real estate in South Florida

• A 27 inch sea level rise would innundate 7000 acres of citrus groves and 26,000 other acres of Florida farmland

• Rising sea levels of 12-24 inches by 2060 will completely cover the lower Everglades, and take with them wood storks, American crocdiles, Florida panthers, and 1/3 of all plant and animal species supported there

• Coral bleaching, caused by increasing water temperatures, and coral disease outbreaks will destroy this essential building block of the food chain

• The marine life we know will be destroyed as ocean temperatures and acidification increase - think sea turtles, mangrove forests, marine sanctuaries, coastal hardwood forests, blue crabs, manatees - you get the picture. Life forms, as we know and love them, will disappear along with our shoreline and way of life.

• Fresh water supplies - which we depend on for life - are expected to worsen as the temperature increases.

In short, Wolesensky says, "Life as we know it will disappear - and I'm not going to sit back at let that happen. When I saw that Bill McKibben was working to do an International Day of Climate Action on October 24th, I said I would take on organizing the Palm Beach County event, and called my friends Barry Silver from the Palm Beach Environmental Coalition and Jack Bradin from Quaker Earthcare Witness to join me in forming a coalition to make things happen." She says that several others stepped up immediately too including Jason Feldman and Terry Ellis from MoveOn and Drew Martin from Surf Riders and Sierra Club. Along the way, the organizing team has grown and now includes other Greenpeace volunteers, former students of Wolesensky, and current students in the PBCC Boca LCG Ecology Club and PBCC Lake Worth Community Earth Club.

On October 24, this group will lead what they hope will be over 300 citizens in forming a Climate Change Wall of Hope and Shame at Atlantic Dunes Beach Park in Delray Beach (1 block north of Linton on A1A/Ocean Blvd) to call attention to the need for strong climate treaty negotiations in Copenhagen in December. (Information about this action, and the Interfaith Service they are holding on October 23 in Lake Worth can be found at www.350.org/palmbeachcounty350. The Palm Beach County Group is just one of over 1300 groups who will congregate in 140 countries that day. The goal of the actions around the world is to call attention to the number 350 - the most important number on the planet, in the words of Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and The International Day of Climate Action. (http://ow.ly/tPE2) Speaking recently to a reporter, McKibben noted that, "350.org expects to nurture and publicize hundreds of anti-global-warming demonstrations on a single day, Oct. 24, all with the aim of imprinting "350" on the world's consciousness. The aim is to raise the pressure on the world's leading nations to set meaningful limits on emissions in talks scheduled for December in Copenhagen."

The Wall of Hope and Shame is designed to give people from South Florida a chance to come together to share their fears about what will happen if we don't reduce carbon build-up in the atmosphere as well as their hopes about how we can change the climate by doing the right thing - and by asking President Obama and other world leaders to do the right thing when they gather in Copenhagen in December to negotiate a new climate change treaty.

Anyone who wants to join the wall can. All you have to do is show up at Atlantic Dunes Park on Saturday, October 24th at 3 p.m. with a picture, poster, banner, artifact, drawing - whatever - that depicts the hope (think wind turbines) or shame (think starving polar bears) of climate change. Then, at 3:50 p.m., the wall will form with each of person displaying our image or artifact. The wall will stand strong for 350 seconds - to assure we drive home the message that climate negotiations and policies MUST be based on the science of getting our atmosphere back to 350 ppm.

Wolesensky says we have a choice to make. In the words of Bill McKibben, "The Earth will scrub carbon out of the atmosphere. We're filling a bathtub, but the bathtub does have a drain. The problem is now, we're just filling it faster than it can possibly drain. If we stop putting more carbon in ... forests and oceans suck some carbon out of the atmosphere each year and they will continue to. The deep problem is that if we don't stop putting more in soon, then as the temperature rises and those sinks, forests and oceans, become steadily less efficient at removing carbon from the atmosphere. Forests begin to die, and so on. So, we've go to do it soon. That's the problem. It's a real time test. It's not like other social or environmental problems that we're used to dealing with. If we don't get it right soon, we won't get it right."

For her part, she's choosing to take this battle to the streets. "While I can drive my vegetable oil powered VW Beetle around, and write letters to legislators and the President, and talk with everyone I know on a daily basis to try to change my corner of the world, my goal with the October 24th action in Delray Beach is to get hundreds more people to make a committment too. Together we CAN stop runaway climate change! I know that and hope others will join me. As the Nobel Laureates said, We know what needs to be done. We cannot wait until it is too late. We cannot wait until what we value most is lost. I value life and will do everything I can to assure future generations get to live on a planet as wonderful and life-giving as the planet I've experienced.

Dear Friends,

It's rare that public humiliation and movement building come in one package, but my appearance on The Colbert Report last night was a bit of both. 

The interview lasted all of four minutes, but I managed to make my pitch and survive the interview with at least 40% of my dignity intact.  If you have friends who aren't necessarily inclined to earnest environmental preaching, this might be a good clip to send them as you try to recruit new activists for the big day of Climate Action on Oct. 24. 

You can see my interview with Colbert--and pass it on to your networks--by using the link below:

http://www.350.org/billoncolbert

In the span of just a few years, Stephen Colbert and his Colbert Report have become institutions in the American media landscape. But interesting institutions--the show is comedy, and it's also slightly anarchic. Colbert is brilliant, and more than a little wild: it's not like going on normal, predictable television. That's the drama, and it's why people tune in.

It's also why I was a little more nervous than usual as my evening in the guest's chair approached. i can usually predict the questions I'll be asked--I've heard most of them before. But last night they were coming fast and furious, and out of left field. "What if I start 349.org?" 

With a lot of help from friends who'd coached me and psyched me up, I got through just fine--and even made Colbert laugh when I inquired if his self-styled Nation wanted to join the 80 other governments that are backing our target. Best of all, it worked--our servers hummed with thousands of new colleagues.

We're enormously grateful to Stephen and his crew for helping us spread the word-now let's keep this movement moving!

Onwards,

Bill McKibben
 

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