Yesterday a march in Edinburgh took place to highlight the need for the upcoming Copenhagen summit to pull its finger out and come up with meaningful action on climate change, viz. to limit the amount of atmospheric CO2 to 350 parts per million.

Joining the samba drummers, blue balloons, and 300-ish marchers was L&B Police's token environmentally-friendly Smart car. Press release from the marchers states:

Today, 130 campaigners and drummers gathered outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, to form a human banner in the shape of the number 350. Participants joined more than 4,000 communities in over 175 countries as part of a International Day of Climate Action coordinated by the international NGO, 350.org, to urge world leaders to take bold and immediate steps to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions.
Around the world, from capitol cities to the melting slopes of Mount Everest, even underwater on dying coral reefs, people held rallies to focus attention on the number 350 because scientists have insisted in recent years that 350 parts per million (ppm) is the most carbon dioxide we can safely have in the atmosphere.
These global actions come six weeks before the world’s nations convene in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference to draw up a new climate treaty. 350.org, along with many leading climate scientists, are arguing that the current plans for the treaty are much too weak to get us back to the safe limit of 350ppm. In addition, the treaty needs to commit to the principle of Contraction and Convergence* in order to ensure that poor countries are given a fair chance to develop whilst the world moves towards to a low carbon economy.
In Edinburgh a parade, led by drummers, marched down the Royal Mile to form a human banner in the shape of the number 350 outside the Scottish Parliament. They were calling on our elected representatives in Scotland and beyond to do their bit to demand that Copenhagen delivers an ambitious global treaty, grounded in the latest science and built around the principles of equity and justice.
“Unless we are able to rapidly return to 350ppm this century, we risk reaching tipping points and irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from increased permafrost melt”, said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and author twenty years ago of the first major book on climate change. “And that's why we need a huge worldwide movement to give us the momentum to make real political change.”
89 countries have already endorsed the 350 target, as well as the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, the world’s foremost climate economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, and Nobel prize-winner Al Gore. Dr. Keith Baker, one of the organisers of the Edinburgh event, explained needs to be taken: “Getting back to 350 means transforming our world. It means making changes on a scale and at a rate we have never seen before. It means building solar arrays and wind turbines, not coal plants and incinerators. It means using proven technologies now, not banking on ones that we are promised will be ready in 10 years time. It means investing in public transport, not building more roads and bridges for cars.”
Images of the events from around the world, including the rally in Edinburgh, are now being featured on giant video screens in Times Square in New York, and are accessible at 350.org as part of a online photostream. Visual documentation from the Day of Action will be delivered to the United Nations on Monday. Photos taken by the organisers of the Edinburgh event are now posted at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34305355@N06/
NOTES TO EDITOR
* More info at: http://www.gci.org.uk/
About 350.org:
Founded by author and environmentalist Bill McKibben, 350.org is the first large-scale grassroots global campaign against climate change. Its supporters include leading scientists, the governments of 92 countries, and a huge variety of environmental, health, development and religious NGOs. All agree that current atmospheric levels of CO2—390 parts per million—are causing damage to the planet and to its most vulnerable people, and that government action at the Copenhagen climate conference is required to bring the earth’s carbon level swiftly down to 350 ppm.
350.org is member of TckTckTck – a global alliance of faith groups, non-governmental organizations, trade unions and over a million individuals calling for a fair, ambitious, and binding international climate change treaty.
More information at: www.350.org and http://holyrood350.org/