You haven’t heard from me in a while because I am soooo tired of writing! I was thinking about this as walked the dog yesterday morning. Though she’s age 11, she still likes to scoot around the corner onto the macadam road that enters the neighborhood and head into a quick sprint. Fortunately, even though I am age 63, I can follow her lead and trot up the hill on the end of our tethered leash until we both look at each other and agree that’s enough for the moment. We continue along at a bush-sniffing, morning-appreciating pace, then return to the house for kibble or granola. And that’s how I’ve always been–a great sprinter, a kid who loved to go from zero to 60–run flat out and stop with happy panting and a sense of the fun of speed, then saunter a while before the next impulse took me into the face of the wind again.

Writing a book (which we turned in on September 1) while working full-time and running a business and now getting the copy edits back and simultaneously helping Ann do the final edits on her book (due November 1) is not a sprint–it’s a marathon!

We have a few weeks remaining in this writing harness and we do feel like a well-matched set of Percheron horses plowing through fields of chapters. I can tell I’ve over-extended myself in the word department because what feels most relaxing is a stint in the garden putting the beds to bed or a beach ramble with no talking… And yet here I am writing this blog in the midst of all this because several important and timely things are happening that I want to find words to acknowledge!

350-350-350-350-350-350-350 and 3/50-3/50-3/50-3/50-3/50-3/50-3/50–350 is a global movement, and 3/50 is a local one.

Global first: 350. This number stands for the number that leading scientists believe is the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide (in parts per million) in the earth’s atmosphere. We have already exceeded that limit, but scientific researcher and climate activist, Bill McKibben, has founded a global initiative to reverse the trend. His campaign is Internet based through the site: www.350.org.

I have been reading Bill’s books since he wrote The End of Nature in 1989, and most recently, Deep Economy. In 2003, editing an issue of Granta Magazine called, “This Overheating World,” he wrote in the introduction, “For fifteen years now, some small percentage of the world’s scientists and diplomats and activists has inhabited one of those strange dreams where the dreamer desperately needs to warn someone about something bad and imminent; but somehow, no matter how hard he shouts, the other person in the dream–standing smiling, perhaps, with his back to an oncoming train–can’t hear him. This group…knows that the world is about to change more profoundly than at any time in the history of human civilization. And yet, so far, all they have achieved is to add another line to the long list of human problems–people think about ‘global warming’ in the way they think about ‘violence on television’ or ‘growing trade deficits,’ as a marginal concern to them, if a concern at all.” The essays that followed turned me around to notice the train of change bearing down on me/us, and set me off to pursue what I could do to contribute to solutions. And while a lot has happened in the way of information since 2003 the useless debates continue at a national and international level while the carbon numbers rise.

The most hopeful thing Bill says these days is “New ways of behaving can still change the future.” Okay then, let’s sprint into action and change it for the better.

The website is an informative, educational, and inspiring read as the world heads toward Global Action day OCTOBER 24 and events are planned in 159 countries (and counting!) Yet if you start walking around wearing their distinction logo <-350 (a great graphic that goes beyond language and yet clearly communicates intent) you’ll have a lot of explaining to do. And won’t that be a wonderful opportunity for practicing story-telling. I want a tee-shirt that says on the back–“Ask me what this means! Then let’s talk about what we can do.”

October 24 is dedicated to building a movement to unite the world in populist action. October 24 is six weeks before the world’s leaders will meet in Copenhagen to formulate a global treaty on carbon emissions. October 24 is next Saturday: What will you do to change the future?

In the midst of our current book projects it’s hard to get far from the desk, but I love a chance to do a little social action. There are things happening within a ten mile radius of my house… I could take the bus. I could ride my bike. I can write all of you–and invite more people to start talking about all the things we are doing and can change in what we are doing that will help bring the carbon number down to a liveable level. And it’s an amazing experiment to be involved in something that has to reach so many corners of the world. Creative minds are at work. Check out the You Tube video, talk to somebody about this that you would not normally engage… Which brings all this right down to the local level and 3/50.

Local: 3/50 is another Internet based action designed to focus consumers on the need to support the local shops on the main streets of North America, Europe–and anywhere else that people have stopped spending their money locally. The premise is simple: think of three independently owned businesses near you that you’d miss if they went away. Stop in and say hello, spend a little money on something you need–even an espresso sipped from a local shop rather than Starbucks which has become a Fortune 500 global franchise makes a difference. Three local businesses, and then in the course of a month spend $50. If even half the employed population of the US spent $50/month in independently owned businesses, their purchases would generate $42.6 billion dollars a year. That’s a lot of money staying home, employing more people in your neighborhood, and helping local folks live their local dreams.

To get involved visit the site: www.the350project.net. Around Whidbey Island people are putting 3/50 placards in the windows, setting little information cards and flyers around their stores. It’s fun to be a local person–to cheer up shopkeepers even by walking in and thanking them for hanging in there with the community during these times when business is slow. Ask them what they need to community to be doing differently–then talk it up around town when you are visiting with friends and neighbors. Get in a dialogue–tell a few stories, listen to their stories.

We make someone’s day, or break someone’s heart, in minute by minute interactions–especially in our public interactions. What is going to happen in the long-haul of the crises represented by these 350 movements we don’t know. We can take charge, day by day, of how we spend our time, our money, our resources, and what stories we use to spur us to action. Let me know how you are and what you’re doing these days.

More soon–now, back to the harness of chapters.

Christina

Copyright ©2009 Christina Baldwin. All rights reserved.

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