[HCCN] "Do the Math" -- 350.org in Portland, 11/13

[Dick Atlee]

http://math.350.org

350.org's national "Do the Math" tour coming to Portland, November 13.

Portland, Maine – 11/13

State Theatre
609 Congress St, Portland, ME 04101
Nov. 13th, Doors at 6 PM, event at 7 PM
Tickets: $10
Get Tickets: http://act.350.org/signup/portland-me-do-the-math/

Featuring Bill McKibben and Melodeego

This won’t be your typical lecture.

Each event will be a unique and interactive experience, unlike any talk 
you’ve been to before. It will pick up where Bill McKibben’s landmark 
Rolling Stone article** left off — and everyone who comes will be asked 
to join a growing movement that is strong enough to stand up to the 
fossil fuel industry. Together we’ll mount an unprecedented campaign to 
cut off the industry’s financial and political support by divesting our 
schools, churches and government from fossil fuels.

This won’t be easy: we’re up against the most profitable, powerful, and 
dangerous industry in history. But we have our own currency: creativity, 
courage and if needed, our bodies.

Activists and All-Stars

As he travels the country in a sustainable bus, Bill will be joined by a 
rotating cast of committed artists, actors, and musicians — each 
dedicated to spreading the message of the challenge before us. Every 
event will be a full evening of music, interactive video, and 
thought-provoking ideas. By the time you leave, you’ll be fired up and 
equipped with the tools, strategies, and resources you need to take on 
the fossil fuel industry.

** From the FAQ on this page:

Can you explain the math, please?

Sure. To grasp the seriousness of the climate crisis, you just need to 
do a little math. Fossil fuel corporations have 5 times more oil and 
coal and gas in known reserves than climate scientists think is safe to 
burn. We have to keep 80% of their fossil fuels underground to keep the 
earth in livable shape.Here are the three numbers you shouldn’t forget:2 
degrees — Almost every government in the world has agreed that any 
warming above a 2°C (3.6°F) rise would be unsafe. We have already raised 
the temperature .8°C, and that has caused far more damage than most 
scientists expected. A third of summer sea ice in the Arctic is gone, 
the oceans are 30 percent more acidic, and since warm air holds more 
water vapor than cold, the climate dice are loaded for both devastating 
floods and drought.

565 gigatons — Scientists estimate that humans can pour roughly 565 more 
gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and still have some 
reasonable hope of staying below two degrees. Computer models calculate 
that even if we stopped increasing CO2 levels now, the temperature would 
still rise another 0.8 degrees above the 0.8 we’ve already warmed, which 
means that we’re already 3/4s of the way to the 2 degree target.

2,795 gigatons — The Carbon Tracker Initiative, a team of London 
financial analysts and environmentalists, estimates that proven coal, 
oil, and gas reserves of the fossil-fuel companies, and the countries 
(think Venezuela or Kuwait) that act like fossil-fuel companies, equals 
about 2,795 gigatons of CO2, or five times the amount we can release to 
maintain 2 degrees of warming.