CitiesGoGreen -September 2008 - (Page 12) Atmospheric CO2 is at 387 parts per million. The scientific evidence says it must be 350 ppm or below to avoid long-term climate catastrophe. We will only get to 350 ppm if enough people decide to do what it takes. “Business as usual” means rising CO2. “350 is the number every person needs to know.” — McKibben “Current scientific knowledge starkly presents 350 ppm as a boundary condition in Nature that humankind should not have transgressed. It marks the point beyond which we can no longer be sure to maintain the stability and predictability of nature,” said Bo Ekman, founder and chairman of the Tallberg Foundation. “This stability was the most important prerequisite for the evolution of human civilization over the last 10, 000 years. “Safely keeping human activity within nature’s boundary conditions does not necessarily mean limits to growth – humans have always been a flexible and creative species. But surpassing those boundaries will, with absolute certainty, result in economic and social decline.”1 the MOST IMPORTANT NUMBER in the WORLD “And we’re already past 350,” wrote Bill McKibben in the Washington Post. “Does that mean we’re doomed? Not quite. Not any more than your doctor telling you that your cholesterol is way too high means the game is over. Much like the way your body will thin its blood if you give up cheese fries, so the Earth naturally gets rid of some of its CO2 each year. We just need to stop putting more in and, over time, the number will fall, perhaps fast enough to avert the worst damage.”2 1850 by Sam McNeil and Stephanie Hopkinson .com 12 1900 September 2008 http://www.citiesgogreen.com/component/content/article/21-september-2008/106-350 http://www.citiesgogreen.com/component/content/article/21-september-2008/106-350
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