The People's Climate March - September 21st -- Community and HBCU involvement- WE NEED STUDENTS AND FACULTY TO REPRESENT

Next month up to 1,000,000 people will march in New York City to put pressure on leaders around the world to address anthropogenic climate change (http://peoplesclimate.org/march/)

Each day, humanity is pushing the Earth's climate system in such a manner as to change the chemical composition of the atmosphere which is warming the planet.  If you were born at the time when the declaration of independence was signed, the atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2) concentrations were probably 280 parts per million (ppm).

1776 - 280 PPM

If you were born when the emancipation proclamation was signed in 1863, allowing many of my ancestors to hear the word freedom after centuries of enslavement the atmospheric CO2 concentrations were 290 ppm.

1863 - 290 PPM

Nearly 100 years later, if you were born when the Civil Rights law was enacted in 1964, the atmospheric CO2 concentrations were 320 ppm.

1964 - 320 PPM

If you were born during 1984 when Michael Jackson gave the We ARE the WORLD concert to help with the severe drought across West Africa, the atmospheric CO2 concentrations were 344 ppm

1984-344 PPM

If you were born the year when President Obama was elected in 2008, the atmospheric CO2 concentrations were 385 ppm

2008 - 385 PPM

Today, August 12, 2014 the atmospheric CO2 concentrations are 398-400 ppm.  Notice that rate  CO2 concentrations are increasing faster now than in the past, because CO2 emissions rapidly increased from very low values prior  to the industrial revolution increasing to 1 billion metric tonnes after 1900 to nearly than 8 billion metric tonnes (14-16 trillion lbs) of CO2 today which are emitted annually around the globe.

We are dealing global problem that each and everyone one of us contributes to in one way or another.  If we do not level off the amounts of CO2 through policymaking then our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, no matter what race, gender, economic class, ethnicity are going to pay the price for what we do today.

My two grandkids... Nasir and Zoe if they are blessed to reach the tender age of 88 and 87 would should expect CO2 concentrations to be 500 ppm if there were actions to mitigate atmospheric CO2 by the generations before them the subsequent ones.  If there are limited actions, they should expect CO2 concentrations of 600-900 ppm.

Nasir - 2100 500-900 PPM

Zoe - 2100 500-900 PPM

We can't let that happen, because the impacts are going to be critical to the billions of people around the world -- a much warmer planet, loss of alpine glaciers, icesheets and sea ice,higher sea level (1-3 feet higher), regional droughts and flooding, threats to food security and water, new climate related diseases, stronger hurricanes. This is our moment in time to make a difference.

Dr. Marshall Shepherd, friend, colleague and past president of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) has written a number of articles in Ebony Magazine laying out the position that African American are vulnerable to climate change.

Dr. Marshall Shepherd, Past AMS President

http://www.ebony.com/news-views/are-african-americans-more-vulnerable-to-climate-change-352#axzz3ADSZkr4v

Dr. Shepherd has also given a TED talk about climate change that I would recommend that everyone take a look at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O019WPJ2Kjs


The African American community has a stake in what happens in the future and people who blow off climate change have forgotten about how historical disparities are going to creep into this situation. We need to continue to talk up this topic.

http://www.ebony.com/news-views/blacks-dont-care-about-climate-change-fact-or-fiction#axzz3ADSZkr4v


So, we are mobilizing and organizing young people from HBCUs to participate in the March on September 21st.  We are anticipating that buses will be available for students and community folks to
ride up to New York.  HBCUs from the south are organizing, but those from Maryland, DC and Virginia need to represent.  Howard, Hampton, UDC, Coppin, Bowie State, Morgan State, UMES, Virginia Union, Norfolk State, we need you to get your young people out to March.  It is their fate and that of the global village that hangs in the balance!!