International leaders will meet in Copenhagen from December 7-18 to create a new international agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions that will replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. To show your support for climate justice, ring your church bells (or hand-bells or drums or gongs or conch shells) 350 times at 3pm on December 13, which will be at the height of the climate legislation in Copenhagen. The World Council of Churches is sponsoring this activity to create a chain of prayer and music around the globe to support climate legislation. Register your event. The National Council of Churches in Denmark has produced a liturgy [pdf] to accompany the bell-ringing.
Why 350 times?
350 refers to 350 parts per million: This is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere according to many scientists and climate experts. For all of human history until about 200 years ago, our atmosphere contained 275 ppm of CO2, but now the concentration stands at 390 ppm. Unless we are able to rapidly reduce CO2 levels again, we risk reaching tipping points and irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from increased permafrost melt.
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