In My Community: Bridge To A Cool Planet

24 10 2009

What was the fuss on the Cambie Bridge today? Anyone sitting in their car mid-day today, frustrated that they couldn’t make it to any of the mega stores near the Olympic Village may just want to take a moment to breathe (I love the smell of carbon monoxide in the morning) and learn a little about today’s rally in support of International Day of Climate Action.

Vancouver’s ‘Bridge To A Cool Planet’ event was one of over 5200 rallies that took place internationally today across 181 countries to help raise awareness around climate change. Oh so many websites, twitter supporters, sub-rallies, campaigns and hubs, it can get a little overwhelming. I should know. I’m a bear of very little brain and I found myself retreating for peace in the False Creek inukshuk forest lest someone find me curled up in the fetal position behind Vision Vancouver’s tent (it only happened that one time, and I think Stockwell Day was speaking so give a kid a break).

So, here are my best Coles Notes, special for you. International Day of Climate Action was organized by a group of Smart International Green Keeners (technical term) who launched 350.org, an international campaign dedicated to (more technical terms cut & pasted from finely crafted press release) creating a fair global climate treaty that lowers carbon dioxide below 350 parts per million, the number leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide, and the number we need to get below asap to avoid runaway climate change.

The primary goal of the 350 movement is to create a new sense of urgency in the global community around climate action, ultimately resulting in the creation of a fair global climate treaty at the 15th UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December (aka COP15, if you happen to see this floating around the social mediasphere).

So, back to the bridge. There were words, there were banners, there were people in costumes. I was not there because I was busy arguing with the False Creek Ferry guy over his trying to charge me and my friend Bill $28 dollars for two return tickets from the Aquatic Centre when we were already half way to our destination and had been told by the first ferry guy that it was $12 return. 28 BUCKS! I could have taken out a fab Cooperative Auto Network Smart car for the day and still had change left over for offsets to make it a fully carbon-neutral day. Oh little ferry, I smite thee (In fact, I smote thou for the rest of the afternoon much to poor Bill’s chagrin… but I digress).

Instead we went straight to the post-bridge-rally climate change festival at Science World (or Telus World of Science, special for my Telusy peeps).

Too fun, and as usual I’ll let the pics speak for themselves. Folks were encouraged to dress as their favourite endangered species or dinosaur (I looked for Stockwell Day but no luck), and some just took it upon themselves to get creative with what that meant. I like that.