Darren sez, "350.org, one of the coolest bottom-up, grassroots activist orgs around, is running a huge International Day of Climate Action this Saturday, Oct. 24. They have, at last count, over 4000 actions (parades, protests, flash mobs and so forth) in 170 countries.
They're trying to cover off every country on the globe, but they're missing 22 (North Korea may prove particularly tricky). From the site:"
"Below you'll find a list of the UN-recognized countries where as of yet there is no action registered. Do you know someone in any of these countries. Does your church or synagogue or mosque or temple have contacts there? What about your professional society? University alumni group? Would you be willing to send an email like this to them, explaining 350 and asking them to join in by organizing some event, large or small, for the 24th of October? Can you imagine the kind of message it would sound if every country on the planet joined in actions on Oct. 24th?"170 Countries! (And the "Missing 23") (Thanks, Darren!)1. Angola
2. Bahamas
3. Turkmenistan
4. Comoros
5. Djibouti
6. East Timor
7. Equatorial Guinea
8. Eritrea
9. Guinea
10. Guinea-Bissau
11. Kiribati
12. Lesotho
13. Liechtenstein
14. Luxembourg
15. Mauritania
16. Micronesia
17. Monaco
18. Namibia
19. North Korea
20. San Marino
21. Sao Tome and Principe
22. Seychelles
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North Korea is contributing by being so utterly impoverished and isolated that their per capita CO2 emissions are rather low. Praise Great Leader Kim and Juche!
^came to say this. Also, most people here have no doubt see the night images of the earth, where everything is lit up like a Christmas tree and N.K. is DARK, with but a few blips.
The yearly C02 emission toll of those 23 countries combined probably equals the CO2 emissions of an average US city - in a month.
You know, it's for a good cause, so if anyone wants to sponsor me to go to the Bahamas I suppose I could organize a local event.
Kiribati is probably on the list because they're already resigned to their fate. As one of the lowest-lying Pacific island chains they've already formally approached Australia & New Zealand for refugee status for the whole population...
Count me shocked that nothing is happening in Micronesia, one of the countries most likely to be impacted by global warming, as parts slowly slip beneath sea level.
These words just came out of the 350 bunker in downtown NYC: "Holy !@#$% We just got BoingBoing'd!" Gigantic thanks to Cory and Darren for helping to bring every country on board for Oct. 24th - what promises to be the biggest day of environmental action the world has even seen.
Earlier today, some amazing news came in: Seychelles & Luxembourg signed up. 20 to go. We're getting there. Hit us up if we can help: organizers@350.org
Everybody not from a country on that list, feel free to join in, too. Use this handy map to find out if an action that you can participate in is taking place somewhere near you: http://www.350.org/map
Somewhere out there, somebody will read this list and snort: "These countries aren't doing anything and Nancy Pelsosi wants me to give up my S.U.V?"
And for anyone in London interested in taking part, there's a fantastic free 350.org festival going on on the South Bank. I won't link in order to protect my vowels, but google The Bigger Picture 2009 for details.
Sounds like a great organization. But I wouldn't worry too much about some of the countries on that list - I've been to Djibouti for work a few times, and aside from it being a tiny tiny country, they kind of have other more pressing matters on their minds like famine and the ever-threat of war from their neighbours ...
I actually used to intern at the ad agency that represents Monaco in the US. I let them know about this and they're going to contact Monaco and urge them to get something going!
Eh. Who cares? I bet all of these countries combined don't add up to more than a thimble full of the world's CO2 output. As someone already pointed out, most of these countries are already doing their part by being so horrifically impoverished that they don't have the capacity to produce a significant amount of CO2. Further, most of these countries have committed to continue to do their pat by having horrible and corrupt governance that will ensure their populations remain to poor and impoverished to add to global output in the future.
If anything, they should just sign on, declare they have already done their part and will continue to do so, and take some warm high fives and back slapping from the rest of the world.
These countries are all either too small to worry about, or too poor. Either way, I wouldn't let their non-participation cause any heart ache.