Bulgaria takes part in the global Day of Action on climate

Founded by American environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, 350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis. On the Day of Action, the organization is calling on people around the world to organize an event incorporating the number 350 at an iconic place in their community, and then upload a photo of their event on 350.org website.

Thousands of photos from 5,248 rallies and protests spread across 181 countries flooded into the web servers of 350.org, marking what organizers of the global warming campaign said was “clearly the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history.”

In Sofia 110 people, organized by the country’s Climate Action Coalition of which WWF is a member, held hands and stood in the shape of the number 350 in front of the National Palace of Culture. However, in spite of the fact that a great number of Bulgarian politicians had been invited to show their support, only Atanas Semov, Vice-President of the National Assembly, attended the event and joined the supporters.

“We must do more to educate people on the issue”, said Georgi Stefanov, Climate Change Expert of the WWF Danube - Carpathian Program in Bulgaria. “Talking to people today I have realized that journalists and environmentalists have a huge job on their hands, informing the general public of the looming climate crisis.”

Earlier this week WWF sent Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov an open letter urging him to strive for a legally binding agreement to emerge from Copenhagen, with all of the elements that make it a real deal. WWF is currently disturbed by the increasing number of voices from European sources hinting that Copenhagen will fail to lead to a legally binding agreement.

350.org will deliver the images from the Day of Action to the media and world leaders. “In some sense, the global warming movement finally went global yesterday,” said 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben. “And there wasn’t a rock star or movie actor in sight—it was ordinary people rallying around a scientific data point to send the message that our leaders actually need to lead.”

“People in almost all the nations of the earth are involved,” said 350 honorary spokesman Desmond Tutu, the South African Anglican archbishop and Nobel Laureate. “It's the same kind of coalition that helped make the word “apartheid” known around the world.”

350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. Scientists have concluded that we are already above the safe zone at our current 390ppm, and that unless we are able to rapidly return to 350 ppm this century, 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.

Only last week the WWF released a report saying that the world has just five years to initiate a low carbon industrial revolution before runaway climate change becomes almost inevitable. But the good news is that it can be done and that the long term benefits will be immense, according to the analysis from WWF.