I am now working part time with 350.org. I’ve been helping send out emails in six different languages to people all over the world to help coordinate the International Day of Action. (The other day I made an error and forgot to email all the people in the former Soviet republics. Oops! I promise I won’t forget again!)

350 stands for 350 parts per million carbon dioxide, which is likely the safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Above this level, it is likely that the ice caps will melt. Here is a scientific paper arguing for this number, and a qualifying discussion on realclimate.org.

Very few economists or policy makers believe that 350 ppm is possible. Concentrations of CO2 are almost at 390 ppm and they are climbing. Most policy makers think that keeping concentrations under 450 will require herculean efforts.

Perhaps that’s why I find the 350.org call to action so inspiring. People around the world are calling for an ambitious target. They aren’t saying “let’s do our best.” They’re saying “lets do what needs to be done.” They’re saying that we can do the nearly impossible. The question is, will we inspire our leaders to act?

Here are images of people around the world calling for an ambitious goal: