Published: September 10, 2008 09:45 am      

Environmentalist has Earth's number

TRAVERSE CITY -- The number 350 took on a new significance for those who attended Sunday's Rally for Local Solutions to Global Warming at Lars Hockstad Auditorium.

Nationally renowned environmentalist and best-selling author Bill McKibben shared the relevance of the figure that he calls "the most important number on Earth."

McKibben cited a paper written by NASA's chief climatologist, James Hansen, for Science magazine this year: "If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 parts per million to at most 350 parts per million."

Creating awareness of the newly established tipping point prompted McKibben, who has been writing on the global climate crisis for nearly 20 years, to start the 350 Movement.

"The only good thing from the study was that we finally got a number. The most important number in the history of the world is 350. We never knew where the danger line was," said McKibben, who described it as a red line for human beings to exist on the planet. "The bad news is at the moment we are at 387 parts per million. We have to figure out how to make that number less."

McKibben hopes to share the information with as many people as possible over the next year through his www.350.org, a site devoted to spreading the word about reducing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to below that infamous number. The site features an animated clip that boils down the science of global warming to a 90-second vision of the 350 campaign using pictures that transcend worldwide language barriers.

"If there is a reason for the existence for the Internet, it is not for people to play poker in their pajamas, it is so that we could take this number and spread it all the way around the world," he said. "We have no choice but to go through this window and pull the world along with us. It is the moral problem of our time."

McKibben noted that Traverse City is one place that seems to have a grasp of the problem's significance.

"I have not long been in Traverse City, but I can see that this is one of those places where people are getting it," he said.

Hans Voss, executive director of program sponsor The Michigan Land Use Institute, sees the interest that area residents have in doing their part to help.

"We want to learn from one of the leading climate change experts, but more importantly we want to provide resources and tools to take action in our local community," Voss said. "There are five simple things that you can do tomorrow."

Callie Youngman and Jen VanDragt, both members of the Sustainable Agriculture Club at Northern Michigan University, traveled from Marquette just to hear McKibben.

"He has got a great message. He really puts the fire in people," VanDragt said.

McKibben, a scholar in residence at Middlebury College and the author of dozens of books including, "Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future," is a former staff writer for The New Yorker.

How to reduce global warming locally:

-- Say no to coal. Consider signing a petition directed to Governor Granholm to prevent eight new coal plants proposed for Michigan. Learn more at www.mlui.org.

-- Eat local food, providing a boost to the local economy and reducing "food miles" or the distance food travels from grower to plate. Learn more at www.localdifference.org.

-- Be a Bioneer. The Great Lakes Bioneers Conference, an annual gathering that promotes cutting-edge ways to live on our planet, is scheduled for Oct. 17-19 at Northwestern Michigan College. Learn more at www.glbconference.org.

-- Help your community cut greenhouse emissions. SEEDS, a local non-profit organization, just completed phase one of its inventory of CO2 emissions in Traverse City and Grand Traverse County. Learn more at ecoseeds.org.

-- Be part of the Grand Vision decision. Cast a vote by filling out a Grand Vision Scorecard at thegrandvision.org.

Source: Hans Voss, executive director of The Michigan Land Use Institute. Learn more at www.thegrandvision.org.