350.org
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| Formation | 2007 |
|---|---|
| Type | NGO |
| Purpose | cut CO2 emissions and build a global movement for climate solutions |
| Headquarters | Oakland, California |
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Founders
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Bill McKibben |
| Website | www |
350.org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million. It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change, to confront climate change denial, and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming. 350.org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen, who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million (ppm) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point.
350.org was founded by author Bill McKibben and a group of students from Middlebury College. McKibben is an American environmentalist and writer who wrote one of the first books on global warming for the general public, and frequently writes about climate change, alternative energy, and the need for more localized economies.
The organizing effort drew its name from NASA climate scientist James Hansen's contention that any atmospheric concentration of CO2 above 350 parts per million was unsafe. James Hansen opined that "if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm, but likely less than that." Carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, rose by 2.6 parts per million to 396 ppm in 2013 from the previous year (annual global averages). It already crossed 400 ppm in May 2012 on monitors in the industrialized Northern Hemisphere's Arctic region.
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