"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!" Goethe

On June 23, 2008 the Tällberg Foundation takes the unprecedented step to send a clear declarative statement to the leaders of the world.

A full page opinion advertisement (op-ad) was published in the global edition of the Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times. (The video displays the ad.)

We, joined by more than 150 concerned citizens and institutions, “call upon all nations in the ongoing climate negotiations to adopt 350 as the target to be reached peacefully and deliberately, with all possible speed.”

350 stands for the atmospheric concentration level of 350 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Current targets discussed by the climate negotiations are levels of carbon dioxide of 450 ppm and 2°C above pre-industrial global mean temperature as the safe upper limit to avoid catastrophic climate change. The business as usual path we are on will take us beyond both these targets in less than 30 years. To meet those targets will require our world to change dramatically.

However, new scientific conclusions make it clear these are the wrong targets:

“The shocking conclusion I have reached, described in a paper written with several of the world’s leading climate experts, is that the safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is no more than 350 ppm (parts per million) and it may be less.  Carbon dioxide amount is already 385 ppm and rising about 2 ppm per year.  Shocking corollary: the oft-stated goal to keep global warming less than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is a recipe for global disaster, not salvation."

These conclusions are based on paleoclimate data showing how the Earth responded to past levels of greenhouse gases and on observations showing how the world is responding to today’s carbon dioxide amount.”

Dr James Hansen is the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He returns to Capitol Hill June 23, twenty years after he first alerted Congress to global warming caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

In the twenty years since, global carbon emissions have only increased, today more rapidly than ever – 3% per year.

The simple, yes shocking, truth is that we have gone too far. We are going in the wrong direction and we have put planetary systems, all inhabitants and generations to come in grave peril. It is uncertain how long the planet can remain above the level of 350 ppm CO2 before cascading catastrophic effects spin beyond all human control.

Therefore, we must go back. We must cut carbon emissions and draw down CO2 below the level of 350 ppm. If we are to preserve the planet upon which civilization has developed, we have no choice but to make bold decisions that will change the way the world works – together

Can we do it? Of course. The path to a brighter, cleaner and healthier world is clear.

Will we do it?  This is the question we must ask ourselves and our leaders. And that answer must be – yes!

We are very encouraged to be joined in this effort by the relevant scientists, leading politicians, business leaders, thinkers, writers, educators, activists and concerned citizens from all corners of the world.  

Our purpose in this “op-ad” is not to present a comprehensive prescription for climate change. Nor a full scientific presentation. But to voice our support for a clear target.

To avoid a world at 450 ppm CO2 is the greatest challenge humanity has ever had to face. But this doesn’t make it righter because it is easier than 350 ppm. We will need to do the very hard things, make the unthinkable thinkable, the impossible possible.

The urgency is brief: it is up those of us alive today to take the first bold steps now  – together – to set things in the right direction. We owe the generations before us and those after us our very finest commitment to the purpose of life on and with this planet.

<350 is a vision, emerged from science but seized upon by concerned individuals and institutions around the world as a moral and political vision. We add our support to the growing global campaign 350.org.

To be able to work toward the world we want for all we need a far bolder vision than what is merely workable. We must dare discover our common sense.

Dr James Hansen returns to the Tällberg Forum and join an esteemed group of scientists in a special workshop on the Planetary Boundaries in partnership with the Stockholm Environment Institute. A parallel workshop on the Moral Imperatives that arise in light of the Planetary Boundaries with leading thought leaders will also take place. These twin workshops lay the groundwork for the Plan C project – a benchmark for the Copenhagen climate treaty negotiations and the centerpiece of the Tällberg Forum which begins June 26.

Follow the conversations through live webcasts from a big tent erected on the village commons of Tällberg with more than 400 engaged and concerned citizens of planet Earth around “the ultimate negotiation table”: “In Search of the Common Sense.”

We all have our work cut out for us. It begins now.

For more more information: Why <350?