Press Release
Salem Climate Crisis Candlelight Vigil Dec. 11 at 5 PM
Release date: Dec. 7, 2009
Summary
The Social Action Team of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, Oregon is holding a candlelight vigil on Friday Dec. 11 at 5 p.m. at the corner of Liberty and Chemeketa streets in downtown Salem. The vigil is part of a worldwide mobilization by 350.org, planned for mid-way through the Copenhagen climate negotiations. The climate talks will build to a head a few days later, as 350.org allies – environmentalists worldwide and people like President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives – struggle to get an agreement that represents “a survival pact, not a suicide pact.” Leaders of island nations have said repeatedly that their survival depends on the world getting back to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide.
The Story
There is a candlelight climate vigil for Friday Dec. 11 from 5 to 6 p.m. at the northeast corner of Liberty and Chemeketa streets in downtown Salem. The Salem vigil is part of many hundreds of vigils worldwide planned by 350.org for the weekend of Dec. 12. The organization (350.org) takes its name from the parts per million (ppm) of CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere known to be safe.
Mohamed Nasheed, President of the Maldives has challenged all countries to act.
“At the moment every country arrives at the negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible. They never make commitments, unless someone else does first.” Nasheed added. “This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide. We don’t want a global suicide pact. And we will not sign a global suicide pact, in Copenhagen or anywhere.” (the full text of his short speech is at http://presidencymaldives.gov.mv/4/?ref=1,6,2469
Phil Carver, board chair of the Unitarian Univiersalist Congregation of Salem, is increasingly frightened about his grandchildren’s future.
“It is clear we have waited too long to act.” Carver said. “Waiting even one more year to begin large cuts in emissions increases the risk of planetary-scale catastrophes.”
Carver followed the science behind global warming for more than two decades as a policy analyst with the Oregon Department of Energy. He also organized a 350 mile trek to help spread the message about 350 ppm of CO2 in the air.
“We passed the safe level of 350 ppm of CO2 in the air in 1988. The level is now 387 ppm and rising 2 ppm per year,” Carver said.
Describing the connection between global warming, sea level rise and the impact on coastal towns around the world, Carver said “It is unfortunately too late to avoid serious damage from sea level rise. Oregon also faces increased droughts, floods and forest fires as the planet warms.”
He and others hope the vigil will motivate people to press for changes in federal policies, which could lead to global action. The limit of 350 ppm has also been endorsed by gubernatorial candidate Bill Bradbury and Lincoln City Mayor Lori Hollingsworth. New agreements to limit greenhouse emissions are still possible at the United Nations climate conference in Denmark in the next two weeks.
“What we do in the next few decades will affect the planet for at least a millennium,” Carver said. “If nothing is done to reduce emissions, many scientists estimate sea level will rise 6 feet this century, eroding over a thousand of feet of seashore in many places.
“This will continue for centuries.” Carver added. “The ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica will continue to melt and raise sea level for at least a thousand years. Once this process begins, reducing emissions will not reverse it. ”
For more information on the Salem vigil contact Carver at (503) 562-9878 or email him at philip.carver@comcast.net. More information on other vigils is available www.350.org.
Background
“In my work for state government, I was responsible for monitoring climate science until I retired this year”, Phil Carver said.
“Now is the time to stand up”, Carver added. “I am not willing to gamble my grandchildren’s future any longer.” Carver was also an organizer and walker of a 350 mile trek to build public awareness of the dangers of sea level rise and acidification of the oceans. Carver and Courtney Collins, both from Salem, walked along the Oregon coast and the Columbia Estuary. The walk and 14 scheduled talks along the way helped organize coastal support for worldwide greenhouse gas reductions.
They began on Sept. 20 at Sunset Bay State Park, near Coos Bay. They finished at a rally in downtown Portland on Oct. 24. Over a thousand people attended the Oct. 24 rally in Pioneer Square.
The walk and Portland rally were part of over 5,200 events organized by 350.org around the world on October 24. The idea of 350.org is to promote the 350 ppm limit that was first developed by James Hansen, a NASA climate scientist, and Bill McKibben, author of End of Nature and Deep Economy.
As they walked, Carver, Courtney and others meet with local residents at various events planned along the route. One event was a talk with Taft High School students in Lincoln City. Gubernatorial candidate Bill Bradbury and Lincoln City Mayor Lori Hollingsworth also spoke with the students.
“Lincoln City is committed to doing its part to curb global warming,” Hollingsworth said. “We would like our neighboring communities to make the same commitment.”
“The science is clear, the impacts of increasing wave heights are already being felt in our coastal communities.” Bradbury said. “Now is the time to lead our state, our country, with strong policies to reduce our carbon and address climate change.”
The 350 Oregon Climate Crisis Walk was co-sponsored by the Social Action Team of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem (OR), Oregon PeaceWorks and Oregon Interfaith Power and Light. It was endorsed by former Sec. of State Bill Bradbury and Lincoln City Mayor Lori Hollingsworth.
Science Notes
Recent research indicates that melting ice will likely raise sea level by 2 to 6 feet this century, depending on greenhouse gas emissions. Sea level rose at the rate of one foot per century since 1990 due to global warming.
If the planet warms enough to induce CO2 and methane emissions from the Arctic tundra and tropical forests, cuts in emissions from fossil fuels will not lower the CO2 level in the air. If large cuts are not made in the next few decades, sea level will likely rise 6 feet or more per century for the rest of the millennium. James Hansen, a leading climate scientist, notes a 15 foot rise this century is plausible.
Drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are needed to limit the rise to 2 feet per century. These cuts are likely close to the maximum achievable. To avoid increasingly dangerous climate changes, the world needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 from the rate in 2005. The rate needs to be lowered to 5 percent of 2005 by 2050. These cuts should bring the level of CO2 back to 350 ppm by early in the next century. Cuts in other emissions, such as methane, black carbon soot and nitrous oxide, are also necessary.
Dr. Rajendra Pachauri is the United Nations’ top climate scientist. He leads the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which every five years produces the authoritative assessment of climate science. Their last report, in 2007, helped set the target of 450 ppm of CO2 that many environmental groups and national governments have adopted as their goal for the Copenhagen meeting this December.
He now supports the level of 350 ppm. The level of CO2 in the air this year is 387 ppm and rising 2 ppm per year.
“As chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) I cannot take a position because we do not make recommendations,” said Rajendra Pachauri when asked if he supported calls to keep atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations below 350 ppm.
“But as a human being I am fully supportive of that goal. What is happening, and what is likely to happen, convinces me that the world must be really ambitious and very determined at moving toward a 350 target,” he told Agence France Presse in an interview this year.”
Even two feet of sea level rise this century will be a serious problem for most coastal communities. One foot of sea level rise can erode several hundred feet of land. Two feet of rise would affect about 700 million people worldwide. A rise of three feet would permanently displace at least 15 million people in Bangladesh, 17 million in Vietnam and 72 million in China. Several island nations will disappear. Six feet per century would be devastate nearly all coastal communities.
Science References
For a recent scientific assessment of global warming see:
http://copenhagendiagnosis.com/press.html
For information on the global impacts of rising sea levels see:
http://www.clima-net.com/docs/elibrary/articles/sealevel.pdf
For the most current synthesis of climate science see: http://climatecongress.ku.dk/pdf/synthesisreport
The discussion of sea level rise is on page 10.
For a more complete discussion of the science of sea level rise see: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327151.300
For an assessment of the issues facing coastal Oregon see: http://egov.oregon.gov/ENERGY/GBLWRM/GWC/docs/climate_ready_communities.pdf
For a technical discussion on predicting sea level rise see: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/08/
For the technical basis for the 350 ppm limit see:
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0804/0804.1126.pdf
