I was part of a 350 day last fall- do you remember that? It was a worldwide effort to bring people together to beg the U.N. to beg the representatives going to Copenhagen to get together, agree on something, and please, please, please get something agreed on and signed so that we can all work together and get on with things. I mean, let’s stop arguing about how best to save the world and just start saving it- isn’t that the oldest of every debate that you’ve ever heard of. It’s a bit idealistic, a bit unrealistic, and bit of exactly what any international politician needs to hear from those of us who are sick and tired of not getting results from the people who are supposed to represent us.

If you remember Copenhagen, we didn’t get much. Obama did go, pull a superman, and tried to live up to his Nobel Peace Prize reputation. He got a loose coalition of countries to sign on to something that was more of an agreement in principle than it was anything with teeth that anyone had to stick to. Whatever. That’s kind of the reaction the folks at the Copenhagen Summit had and the rest of the world felt when they left Copenhagen. On the night in question, I was gathered with 50 or more believers who had all gathered together and tried to do things, in their own separate ways, to keep the world’s carbon emissions underneath 350 parts per million (ppm). I myself was inspired by the compelling advertising 350.org had in their corner. We ended up in a San Francisco event space drinking biodynamic wine and dancing, congratulating each other that the city had just started requiring restaurants to compost the food waste.

Is it all hopeless? It’s not. It’s going to be what it will be, but the fact that we didn’t have an effect on Copenhagen merely means that we didn’t have an effect on Copenhagen- we haven’t reached critical mass. Yet. What we have reached is the point where there is enough of an uproar that you can organize thousands of events around the world. It’s at the point where Dr. King was doing marches. It’s at the point where JFK was giving speeches about how we needed to go to the moon. It’s at the point where Obama was talking about Hope and Change.

And then Reuters comes out and says that the world, in fact, has lowered our emissions 1.3% in 2009. We’re at 31.3 billion tons right now. It is the first year over year decline- ever. (at least in recorded history of this kind of thing).

And why did it happen? There is certainly a rise in the investment in renewable energy, yes. There is the global economic crisis which means we made less stuff. And then there is the simple fact that we are using less, and this is something that we should be celebrating. But then, there is the sobering reality:

"The energy-induced CO2 output in China in 2009 due to its economic growth has grown to a level now that is as high as that of the U.S. and Russia combined." Said IWR director Norbert Allnoch.

And before you get too excited, remember we are still 37% above the 1990 levels that are the basis for the Kyoto Protocol.

Photo Credit: nasa1fan/MSFC