Justin Guay, Sierra Club - India Program Officer
Sierra Club India Environment Post
Following the failure of the United States Senate to pass climate change legislation, and the ensuing finger pointing, weeping and gnashing of teeth, many in the international environmental community have been left to ponder the enormity of the implications in shock.
With an already beleaguered set of UNFCCC negotiations, an embattled IPCC, a fading climate agenda at the annual G-20 meetings (which just a year ago pledged to phase out fossil fuel subsidies) and the continual onslaught of rising temperatures and climate related disasters things look bleak to say the least. Indeed, if there were ever a time for energy and passion to be infused in the climate movement it is now.
Enter 350.orgs efforts to build a global movement to not only demand action, but get to work on the change they wish to see. Building upon the incredible success of last year’s international day of action the organization is planning a global work party that already counts 1,077 groups in 109 countries.
During the global day of action in 2009 India alone was home to more than 160 actions in over 70 cities with the number 350 formed by shikaras on Dal Lake in Kashmir and by school children next to the Taj Mahal. This year is no different with 22 states already signed up for 350 actions spanning the Amber fort in the colorful deserts of Rajasthan to the far flung north eastern state of Assam to the glittering financial hub of Mumbai.
What’s most striking about these events is the youth participation at a grassroots level in a nation where, according to UNICEF, 37% of the population is under 18. In addition to 350 organizations like the Indian Youth Climate Network, Greenpeace India and Whynewcoal.com, are demonstrating the youth’s refutation of destructive fossil fuel technologies of the past and the generations powerful embrace of a clean energy future.
It is in this spirit that every corner of India, indeed every corner of the globe, is uniting to lend a voice to reason. “People in almost all the nations of the earth are involved,” said Archbishop Desmond Tutu of last year’s 350 event. “It's the same kind of coalition that helped make the word "apartheid" known around the world.”
As we stand amidst the wreckage of action at a political level it is the world’s every day citizens that are rising to the challenge and reinfusing the climate movement with the fierce urgency of now. As Bill Mckibben put it on the David Letterman show, “if we can get to work, we damn well expect our politicians to”. After all, it’s hot as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore.
This article was originally posted on the Sierra website.
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** The Sierra Club is helping 350.org by organizing work parties in several states across the country. If you are interested in joining these efforts please look here for more information or here to host a work party.
