Dear colleagues:
Yoga has always been at the intersection between the physical and the mental and the spiritual. Which means that we practitioners can be an enormous help with one of the most important days of public witness the world has ever seen—a day that will be equal parts solemn and fun.
As you know, global warming is proceeding even faster than scientists have feared. In the last two years we’ve seen the very rapid melt of Arctic sea ice, the spread of mosquito-borne disease to hundreds of places once beyond its reach, and the devastating droughts and wildfires that become annually more common. It’s clear that climate change is a present crisis, not one for the future. But it’s also clear that so far our leaders have not addressed it on the scale it must be addressed.
Now, with the crucial global negotiations looming on the horizon in Copenhagen, we can do something to help change that. The world's foremost climatologist, NASA's James Hansen, and his team last year declared that 350 parts per million co2 was the most carbon we could safely have in the atmosphere. That's a tough number, because we're already past it. At the moment, the atmosphere holds 387 ppm co2, which is why we’re seeing deadly blazes in Australia and oceans acidifying so rapidly that scientists think coral reefs may not survive past mid-century.
The 350 target is the most important number in the world. It’s been endorsed by leaders ranging from Al Gore to the Dalai Lama—who pointed to the rapid melt of Tibetan glaciers and said “concerned people of the world and all people of good heart should be aware of 350 and act on it.”
We’ve got a way for you to act on it. On October 24, 350.org is organzing an enormous global day of climate action, designed to drum that number into every heart on the planet. Thousands of churches will be ringing their bells 350 times, people will be hanging banners from iconic sights from the Taj Mahal to the Eiffel Tower, people will be joining hands in great lines along the world's beaches. There will even be 350 scubadivers down off the Great Barrier Reef, itself succumbing to higher ocean temperatures. In the first few weeks the website has been registering plans for action, more than a thousand have streamed in from communities on every continent. It’s going to be the biggest day of global action the world has ever seen.
We need yoga practitioners the world over to join in, in ways that will engage the public and the media. Can you get your students and colleagues to some public place that morning for 350 sun salutations? Can you get 350 feet in the air all at once? Can you do something that will resonate with your students and with your community, that will get on the front page of the newspaper and into the front chambers of people’s brains?
If you can, please contact Kelly Blynn, who is Kelly@350.org. She’ll be coordinating this worldwide action, and making it easy for us all to see the results from our community all across the globe.
Many, many thanks for all your help,
Bill McKibben
Director, 350.org
We are looking for more yoga centers to join in and make this a grand event! Spread the word! And local musicians too!