September 24 will see a climate carnival in Accra, Ghana; a bicycle rally in Milan; a faux rugby game in Wellington, New Zealand with renewables versus fossil fuels; an alternative energy “Show and Tell” event in Albuquerque; a plastics-free design contest in Bangalore; special hikes and tree plantings in Al Mazraa, Jordan; a “Shout Out for Solar!” demonstration in Alford, Fla.
These events and hundreds more all over the U.S. and the world will happen that day as part of Moving Planet, a worldwide demonstration of people’s wish to get the world off fossil fuels and onto sustainable energy.
If governments can’t take the lead to make it happen, people will have to. On Sept. 24 and 25, Valley residents concerned about the human contribution to global warming will join their counterparts on every continent in protesting the use of fossil fuels and exploring other possibilities.
It’s all organized by the climate fighters at 350.org, a group so named because of its focus on the level of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere. Before the Industrial Age, that level was estimated at 284 parts per million. The maximum level the atmosphere can handle without tipping dangerously toward overheating is believed to be 350 ppm; now we’re at about 391.
Given that Moving Planet happens when it does, it’s timely that a new study underscores the need for worldwide attention to the greenhouse gas load in the skies above our common home. A report by the Universal Ecological Fund, the U.S. branch of the Argentinean group of the same name, crunches information from the International Panel on Climate Change and other bodies of experts to show that we may be looking at 490 ppm of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as soon as 2020.
If that happens and warming increases, there may be shortages of such basic crops as corn, rice and wheat, even as population growth gives the world 890 million new mouths to feed.
Here is a list of Moving Planet events in the Valley. People here, as everywhere, are asked to minimize driving by coming on foot, bicycling, skateboarding or skating, taking public transportation or—if they must come by car—carpooling.
On Saturday, Sept. 24 in Amherst at 11 a.m, attendees will walk from the site of the proposed solar farm at the town landfill to the Common, while others bike from the Mount Tom coal plant in Holyoke. The groups will meet at noon on the Common, where they will call for an end to the use of coal and other polluting fossil fuels and dangerous nuclear energy in the U.S. and their replacement with solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources, and for increased energy conservation and efficiency.
On Saturday at 11:30 a.m in Northampton’s Pulaski Park on Main Street, a Fossil Fuel Funeral will be held.? Participants will freeze in place for five minutes at various points along Main Street to call for cooling of the climate and protection of the environment.
At Greenfield Community College on Saturday at noon, participants will join people attending the seventh annual Sustainability Summit and form a giant outdoor number 350. There will also be food, live bands and clean energy booths and workshops. Children can bring artwork expressing their views about the environment for display.
On Sunday, Sept. 25 in Northampton, a rally with speakers and local musicians will be held at 1 p.m. in Lamprin Park in front of Bridge Street School (the school is located beside Rte. 9 just east of the turn that takes you toward downtown). At 2 p.m., attendees will walk (on the sidewalk on the north side of Bridge Street) to the Coolidge Bridge. While some cross the bridge, displaying signs that read “Stop Climate Change? 350.org.,” the others will line the sidewalk along Bridge Street, then return to the park for more speakers and music. Poems, songs, and statements about climate change by local children and high school and college students will be read.
Pictures of these events and others taking place all over the world will be sent to 350.org and posted there. For more on Moving Planet, see www.350.org.
