When carbon dioxide exceeds 350 parts-per-million saturation in the atmosphere, then Earth's climate may well be too unbalanced to continue sustaining life as we know it, says the renowned writer and activist.
It's also the focus of McKibben's latest campaign to motivate people against climate change. He launched it Saturday in Salt Lake City, with a campaign Web site at www.350.org.
McKibben spoke about the campaign and issued a call to action in concluding the 13th annual Stegner Symposium, Alternative Energy: Seeking Climate Change Solutions.
"Someone in the last panel asked, 'Do we need to go out into the streets?' '' McKibben said. "The answer is 'yes' . . . visibly, publicly, angrily, noisily."
Sponsored by the University of Utah's law school, this year's two-day conference explored the overlap of energy, the environment and climate change, along with the resulting transformations in science and policy. Speakers addressed everything from how utilities are adapting, to the advantages of carbon-free fuel, to paying for the reduction of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
McKibben wrote in 1989 what is probably the first, general audience book on global warming, The End of Nature. Last year, he and some of his students at Middlebury College in Vermont organized a nationwide campaign to mobilize a political movement aimed at pushing Congress forward. "Step It Up" rallies were held in more than 1,400 cities, with Salt Lake City's being one of the biggest.
Scientists now describe 350 as "the safe upper limit for atmospheric carbon dioxide," McKibben noted.
Polar ice is melting alarmingly fast. Malaria and dengue fever are spiking in tropical regions, and the winter cold that stores snow in the mountains for the summer is shortening, he said. And the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has risen to 385 - a dramatic increase from the pre-Industrial Revolution level of 275.
He wants to rally people worldwide through idea-sharing and action on the 350 theme. "We've got to mobilize all the resources we have morally and practically if we are going to have any hope of change on the scale that's required," he said.
For Peter Cady, an Olympus High School sophomore whose parents took him out of school to attend the symposium, the message hit home. He's planning to check out the 350.org Web site.
"I thought it was right on," agreed his mother, Candace.
fahys@sltrib.com
''
Someone in the last panel asked, 'Do we need to go out into the streets?' The answer is 'yes' . . . visibly, publicly, angrily, noisily.
''
-Bill McKibben, renowned writer and activist, speaking about climate activism at the 13th Annual Stegner Symposium.
