Your Voice in Cancun

Guess what? Next Monday marks the beginning of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in Cancún, Mexico. The purpose of this conference is for our world leaders to come to an agreement on how to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions through the curbing of their own countries’ output. 

The greatest contributor to the greenhouse effect is carbon dioxide (CO2). Without such an effect, life would be much harsher. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is currently at 388 ppm (parts per million) and still rising. This means that if the air above our heads was divided into a million cubes, 388 of those cubes would be filled with CO2. 

Carbon dioxide gets into our atmosphere through the use of fossil fuels and from widespread deforestation. Fossil fuels are mainly composed of carbon. The loss of virgin land means the release into the atmosphere of carbon stored in plants. This carbon then teams up with oxygen molecules to create CO2.

This is where it gets to be too much. We have gone from a pre-Industrial Revolution level of 275 ppm to an unsustainable 388 ppm of atmospheric CO2. This concentration is causing lasting damage to our planet and its inhabitants.
That is why the ideal agreement between participating countries at the UNCCC will be a reduction of atmospheric CO2 to a stable number below 350 ppm. That is the safest upper limit that we can live with. Anything higher than 350 ppm will bring about drought, rising sea levels, the disappearance of fertile coastal farmland, the destruction of coral reefs, extinctions, decreased crop yields, melting glaciers, more intense natural disasters, and higher global temperatures. These consequences are already being felt in parts of the world. 

Last year’s International Day of Climate Action was created by an organization called “350”. This organization’s goal is to have citizens’ voices heard by the decision-makers. Timed in accordance with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last December, the International Day of Climate Action saw people from all around the world stage events of public environmental awareness. Pictures from these events, sent to the 350.org website, were presented by the organization to the decision-makers in Copenhagen. 

This year, 350 has created a new plan to make the political leaders in Cancún sit up and take note. Their project, 350 eARTh (Earth Art), takes place from November 20th-28th. The objective is to create a work of art that will send a strong message to our leaders. Pictures of these events will once again be delivered to our heads of state. Anyone can do this! I encourage you to plan your own events; get together with friends and family to create an expression of your voice to the government. There are many ideas you can choose from on 350’s website; http://earth.350.org/get-involved/make-your-own-art/ . 

I am planning an aerial/land art event in the schoolyard of Ecole Saint-Joachin in La Broquerie for the morning of Saturday, November 27th, and I welcome any ideas you have. If you are interested, please contact me at lab350@hotmail.com or search “La Broquerie 350” on Facebook.

Lacey Lord