Ride350: Bicycling for Climate Change AwarenessA Two-Wheeled Journey in Alliance With
350.orgOctober 19th through October 24th, 2009
This October, a group of dedicated friends will ride bicycles 350 miles from Arcata, California to San Francisco in an effort to raise awareness about issues connected to climate change. Our group is forming with the encouragement and support of
350.org, an international coalition of concerned individuals building a global grassroots climate movement around the most important number on the planet: 350
What is 350? Why is it so important?350 is the most important number on the planet.
As you probably know, climate change is occurring around the world at an alarming rate. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, overwhelmingly the product of human kind’s actions on earth, have skyrocketed since the industrial revolution, leading to global warming, habitat loss, and increasing intensity in storm surges. “The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million (ppm), we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth.” This fact, without pretense, makes 350 the most important number on the planet.
What is 350.org?350.org is an international organization calling everyday citizens to action. 350.org is a platform for positive activism in the face of catastrophic climate change. 350.org believes that raising awareness around the number 350 will put pressure on world leaders to aggressively address the subject, causing a paradigm shift in how individual countries approach a global problem. But the foundation for the paradigm shift has to come from the grassroots level. 350.org asks only that we take action to spread the number -- how we choose to do so is completely up to us.
Why Ride350?Ride350 is one group of friends’ response to this global call to action.
Many of us have already started making changes in our daily lives and in our communities to minimize carbon emissions. As a start, all of us enjoy riding bicycles. Riding 350 miles along the northern California coast is a small yet important act of solidarity to spread the number 350. Along the way we will engage local activists, politicians, and everyday citizens to join the movement. We will spread community, encourage collective action, and we will have a positively enjoyable time doing it.
Why October 24th?350.org is organizing a Global Day of Climate Action to take place on October 24th, 2009, the same day that the Ride350 team plans to cross the Golden Gate Bridge into beautiful San Francisco. Our action will be one of thousands taking place that Saturday across the globe. The events - from rallies and sit-ins to an ascent of the world’s highest peak - will be diverse in form, yet their function will be clear.
We know that world leaders are meeting in Copenhagen in December to craft a new global treaty on cutting carbon emissions. We want the leaders at that meeting to understand the gravity of what science tells us about climate change. We want them to know the number 350. But most importantly, we want them to know that we - global citizens from every corner of the planet – are dedicated to positively changing the course of history for future generations to come. Our individual actions on that day might seem trivial, but thousands of actions broadcast simultaneously around the world via the internet will work to engage our leaders in this critical debate and hold them accountable to a unified global citizenry.
Photo of the first official Ride 350 training session on March 21st in the Marin Headlands, north of San Francisco. The weather wasn't nearly as bad as the picture seems to suggest. The crew, on the other hand, was unquestionably suspect. Not your average group of weekend road warriors. And not planning on it.
