Amanda LittleAuthor of “Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells, Our Ride to the Renewable Future”
Posted: October 27, 2009 05:39 PM
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Eight Reasons for Hope on Climate Change
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Read More: 350.org , Global Warming , International Day Of Climate Action , Green News
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Saturday’s International Day of Climate Action gave us overwhelming evidence of hope at a time of widespread despair on global warming.

Last month, scientists predicted a 6.3 degree rise in average temperatures — higher than previously estimated — by the end of this century, even if the strongest pollution-reduction targets proposed by the world’s leaders go into effect. (The most recent ice age, for context, was triggered by a 3 degree change in average temperatures.) The Obama administration, meanwhile, has been criticized for weakening its stance on the climate issue, and hopes are dimming for an international treaty at the December climate summit in Copenhagen. As Democrats struggle to pass a domestic cap-and-trade bill, partisan battles are increasingly shrill and contentious, casting doubt on the bill’s chance of passage anytime soon. Even if it were to pass, enviros have criticized the legislation as “woefully inadequate” and “less than worthless.”

Most of us are deaf to these laments. The more strident and dismal the climate battle becomes, the more the American public tunes out. We can’t ignore the science, but we’ve got to move past the partisan bickering, past the politics of doom and gloom, and focus on what’s going right. As Saturday’s event made clear, there’s a lot going right:

1. We are connected.

Online organizing and social media — Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Skype, Facebook, blogs — are ushering in a new era of coalition-building and global climate outreach breathtaking in scope. These online tools “enable us to track the growing momentum on this issue,” 350.org organizer May Boeve told me. “That’s vital to movement building.” Daily twitters and blog posts on climate change number in the tens of millions — spreading information, rallying lobbyists, and stoking innovation. Al Gore, for one, has nearly two million followers on Twitter — more than Martha Stewart.

2. We have a target.

The most complex scientific problem humanity has ever faced has been distilled into a three-digit manifesto — 350. Transcending language and education barriers, this global target was spelled out on beaches, mountain tops, monuments, and town squares, in human bodies linked to human bodies.

3. We have youth.

Kids and students were a highlight of the 350 event — reflecting the youth climate movement that has been growing globally in recent years. In the US, the Energy Action Coalition has convened hundreds of thousands of students who are greening their campuses, lobbying state legislatures and Congress, and partnering with activists worldwide — members of the China Youth Climate Action Network, Khmer Youth Association, Accion Climatica Colombia, the Indian Youth Climate Network, among other groups. In place of the panda, they’ve have chosen for their symbol the green hard hat, representing a new era of green jobs.

4. We have diversity.

Saturday’s event produced the world’s first grand-scale portrait of the global climate movement-and most of them looked nothing like Al Gore. The images of activists across all economic strata in Mumbai, Instanbul, Cairo, Dhakam, Gaborone and well beyond made it clear that environmentalism is no longer the domain of the white, privileged Prius-and-polar-bear set.