Image: Robert van Waarden / Spectral Q

It was cool and cloudy this morning as more than a dozen volunteers placed red flags across a park field in Bonn, Germany.  We were preparing to create a giant aerial image and message to the UN climate talks taking place here.  No one anticipated just how wet we were all about to be — or just how beautiful an message we would create…

Starting at around noon over 500 people (Bonn locals and international activists alike) braved a steady, cool rain to form the aerial image directed by our friend John Quigley, SpectralQ.  With penguins, polar bears, and puppets greeting the crowd as they entered the park it was a festive event and a clear demonstration of the groups’ dedication for the issue — lying on the wet ground for over 40 minutes as photographers and press snapped pictures.

And the message?  To world leaders and the delegates attending the UN climate talks we were sending a laaarge reminder of the urgency of this moment.  Time is tck tck tcking on as world leaders linger and delay in doing what they can and must do — set the world on course back below 350 ppm CO2.

And the aerial image wasn’t all.  After all the photos were taken the group rose up, donned green hard hats (keeping our white suits on), and marched to the UN climate conference.  And there, despite instensifying rain, the hardy crew addressed our message directly to the delegations inside — Yes you can!

Update: This just in from Young Friends of the Earth Europe…

The climate change negotiations here in Poznan, Poland are on pause today in recognition of the Mulsim holiday, Eid al-Adha.

As we await the coming days of crucial negotiations leading towards a new global climate treaty, we are not about to sit idly by. Rather, we joined with over 200 people here in Poznan’s Freedom Square to form the beautiful image on the left.

Inspired by the AOSIS and LDC countries’ shared vision to reach 350 ppm co2, we created the shape of a human form on a threatened small island raising up the 350 target — the goal we must set for the sake of many countries’ very survival and a safe global climate.

Many thanks to all who joined in the event, braving the cold and wet. Hopefully this photo, along with many 350 photos being displayed here in Poznan, can capture the hearts and imaginations of some more delegates in these negotiations and help move the talks in the right direction.

Aerial art directed and photographed by John Quigley/Spectral Q

My body is beginning to re-adjust to the appropriate time zone after returning to our 350.org office here in Burlington, Vermont, USA from India just 2 days ago. It is overwhelming to reflect on all that I did and learned in India for August while meeting with partners and allies across the country. The movement to fight climate change is now growing to new levels in India with exciting potential for changing the course of local, national, and international action on this crisis. This new growth is only just in the nick of time.

It’s incredibly sad to read reports of the floods in Eastern Nepal and the state of Bihar in northeastern India. As a result of unforgiving monsoon rains, a dam burst in Nepal 11 days ago, and now the Kosi river flowing from Nepal into Bihar breached its banks and changed course, pouring into hundreds of villages and towns. The death toll from floods and well as water-borne disease is rising day by day, and ultimately millions of people are being affected.

What’s worse is that India is no stranger to such disasters. Being in India this month I heard numerous personal tales of floods that are hard to conceive. Most memorable perhaps are the 2006 floods in Mumbai where nearly a meter (37.1 inches) of rain feel in a 24 period. While I was fortunate to not get caught up in anything on that scale, the stories became all that more real for me as I wintessed streets of Hyderabad turned into rivers in some sections of the city earlier in the month. All these floods are compounded by imperfect human development — urbanization without appropriate drainage, dams unable to contain the monsoon rains. Yet, the severity and frequency of these floods is being linked by many to the changing climate of South Asia as a result of global warming — it’s hard to build cities capable of withstanding a meter of rain in 24 hours.   

And it’s not just floods. In meetings with groups all around India I heard news of countless environmental changes and problems facing communities and the country right now. Even beyond the many local pollution and environmental degradation issues, they spoke of floods, droughts, rising sea levels, unpredictable seasonal changes making farming both difficult and stressful, and much more.
All in all, it makes sense to people in India that climate change is real and happening now. Even if learning about the concept of global warming for the first time, their experience often tells people that something is going seriously wrong.

The reality that Indians — and we could easily use the example of any number of countries around the world — are now facing the impacts of climate change while the planet heats up with 387 ppm co2 in the atmostphere makes it quite clear that we’re above where we want to be with respect to climate change. The news that we’re beyond the safe upper limit of co2 in the atmosphere makes perfect sense in this context. And thus, just about everyone I met in India agreed, setting 350 as the benchmark for international action is a must.

If the world is going to reach 350, then India needs not only to demand action and support from the main global warming culprits, the US and European nations, but they too will have to take a leadership role in modeling how to improve the lives of millions without endangering the planet. India will certainly have increasing energy demands as they attempt to provide electricity and improved standards of living to millions of people now living in poverty. The same vision now carrying forward the green jobs movement in the US is now rising at the grassroots level in India. Echoing the words of Van Jones, the movement to reach 350 is also a movement to create a “green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.”

And so, it’s not only the flood waters of Bihar changing course. The movement to fight climate change and set the world on course to 350 is now strengthing in India as well. The Climate Project India, the Indian Youth Climate Network, the Centre for Social Markets, the Center for Environmental Education India, Sactuary Asia, and many many more are all increasing their efforts to rally the Indian people to take on climate change, including spreading 350. Much of their energy is starting with the need for basic education on the subject of global warming, but they are swiftly moving folks from education to action as well. It’s inspiring and a real renewal of hope to see the new course taking shape in the Indian climate movement, 350 now among the unifying themes.

In the end, this movement is never about any one country — not India, not China, not the US. It’s about uniting all countries and catalyzing global cooperation to achieve the common goal of 350 through the most fair means possible.