Hello
350 Aotearoa is the New Zealand arm of a global movement for strong action on global warming and climate change. We want to send a message to our government that we want them to take a firm position at the global climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December. A group of us are organising an event in Hamilton on Saturday 17 October from 11.00am to noon, in Civic Square in front of the City Council building as part of the 350 Aotearoa campaign.
Why 350? Its called the ‘350’ campaign because that is the upper limit of CO2 (in parts per million) that the atmosphere can absorb without experiencing dangerous climate change. In practice we are already over that limit (somewhere around 390ppm) and the evidence of climate change is everywhere – particularly the Arctic and Antarctic, where temperatures have already risen as much as 8 degrees above the long-term average. As you will be aware, mainstream climate scientists are deeply scared by what they see for the future.
See http://www.350.org.nz/ for more information.
Without Government support, the positive changes individuals make to their lifestyles won't come to much. We want our Government to know that New Zealanders want stronger action to be taken on climate change. There is a global ground swell of ‘bottom-up’ action happening world wide – not just in the US and UK, but in India and China as well as elsewhere. In NZ there are dozens of groups throughout the country that are doing something as part of the campaign (e.g. 350 frocks on bikes in Christchurch, 350km trek through the West Coast, Wellington Anglican Cathedral bell is to ring 350 times...). We want Hamilton to be included in that show of action.
In Hamilton, we are organising a line of people into the numbers '350' . We have obtained permission from Hamilton City Council to access the main building so that we can photo the human chain. We will be sending the photos to the local newspapers and will download them onto the 350.org website. There will be a programme of speakers, brochures, posters and fliers. We will have a 350 pledge card that people can sign and pledge ways by which they will cut their carbon footprint by 10% in 2010 (see attached). The pledge card can be sent free to Nick Smith, Minister for Climate Change.
I hope you will be free to join the fun on Saturday morning of the 17th October, rain or shine. Bring an umbrella if its raining. Bring your friends and workmates too.
If you care about the issue of global warming and climate change, this will be one small way that you can show your feelings.
Kind regards
Dr. Mairi Jay, MA (UBC), MA (Waterloo), PhD (Waikato), MNZPI
Senior Lecturer,
c/- University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton
Email: mairij@waikato.ac.nz
