350 The Most Important Number

Today is Climate Action Day and 350.org has been reporting on events throughout the world. There are dozens of great pictures of the actions that have taken place, including one underwater one from Maldives - a small island nation threatened by rising sea levels.

Why is this number so important? Read Bill McKibben here. According to his post, we must have a reduction to 350 ppm of carbon in the atmosphere in order to have a planet that remains livable and without global warming. This is not a number someone just made up, but is the result of much study from many directions. As Bill McKibben says:

But it's not as if we have a choice. The most useful thing about having a number is that it forces us to grow up, to realize that the negotiations that will happen later this fall in Copenhagen aren't really about what we want to do, or what the Chinese want to do, or what Exxon Mobil wants to do. They're about what physics and chemistry want to do: the physical world has set its bottom line at 350, and it's not likely to budge.

For better or worse, at this point we humans are indeed the stewards of creation. Let us get about that business and find ways to reduce our carbon footprint. Let us be blessings in our natural world, rather than those who curse the land and condemn its creatures to death. May we truly understand that all creation is a sacrament of God, revealing the Divine and testifying to the power and majesty of the Holy. The entire universe praises its Creator. I pray we do that too.