GODSTUFF

350: MORE THAN JUST A NUMBER

This weekend, at synagogues around the globe, Jewish congregations will read from the Torah the story of Noah, his ark and the big flood that nearly brought about the end of the physical world.

It’s a fitting scripture passage for this weekend when people of all faith traditions –and none — will join their voices to try to jolt world leaders into action to rein in climate change before another catastrophe ushers in the very real demise of planet Earth.

Shepherded by the organization 350.org and its founder, Bill McKibben, the environmentalist and author of the groundbreaking book The End of Nature, thousands of people in 170 countries and counting are mobilizing in protests, fairs and community cleanups to draw attention to the growing threat of climate change.

McKibben’s organization takes its name from 350 parts-per-million — the highest concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere that most scientists consider safe. At the moment, we’re living and breathing in a 390-ppm atmosphere. Not good.

The organization’s Web site says “350 represents more than just a scientific benchmark for a safe climate — there are also deeply moral and spiritual reasons for getting the world back below 350 ppm. Social justice, creation care, stewardship, earth community, beloved community — there are many ways we can name and express our moral and spiritual perspectives on this issue. We invite people off all faiths and all traditions to join us in prayer, meditation, action and celebration for 350.”

It’s a call that has been answered by religious folks worldwide, from mainline Protestants and rabbis to the Dalai Lama and Muslim organizations in the Middle East.

And it’s a rallying cry that has resonated deeply at my alma mater, Wheaton College, that bastion of evangelical Christianity that some call the Harvard of Christian schools, where McKibben spoke earlier this year.

“Wheaton College and evangelicals in general have been mixed, at best, on the environment,” said Greg Halvorsen Schreck, a photography professor at Wheaton who was instrumental in bringing the 350.org event to the school.

Traditionally (or at least historically), old-guard evangelicals took more of an “evacuation plan for planet Earth” than a “save the trees” approach to environmentalism. But earlier this year, an epic change came to Wheaton: It went green.

Wheaton’s president, Duane Litfin, was among a group of evangelical Christian leaders who signed the “Evangelical Climate Initiative,” a document calling for the evangelical community to become more engaged in combatting global warming.

“President Litfin not only signed the evangelical agreement on climate change, he ordered the entire college to be made sustainable and green, even to the point that the dining hall supports local sustainable farming and is semi-organic,” Halvorsen Schreck said. “The campus workers drive around in alternative fuel vehicles, and the new science building will be certified as a [green] building. That all was just unthinkable to me. . . . It’s nothing short of miraculous.”

On Saturday, Wheaton will host one of several 350.org-related events, including ringing the bells of its historic Blanchard Hall 350 times — a symbolic gesture in which many houses of worship around the world will be joining them. (Blanchard was once a stop on the Underground Railroad.)

“God has always called us as Christians to be good stewards of his creation and we have the privilege of joining with him in his plan for complete reconciliation and redemption of creation,” said Rachel Lamb, a sophomore environmental studies and international relations major at Wheaton who helped organize Saturday’s events, which include a concert on the campus quadrangle, a haiku-writing contest, letter-writing booths and a huge painting made by Schreck and his students using gas-powered leaf blowers.

“We are part of an international movement and it is important to recognize this problem as global, but we cannot forget about personal responsibility,” Lamb said. Students will participate in an audit of waste on campus, and the dining hall will serve only low-carbon-impact foods for lunch.

The timing of this weekend’s 350.org events is crucial (some might even say providential). Today, President Obama is expected to deliver a landmark speech on clean energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And next week the U.S. Senate is set to begin hearings on a climate bill in advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, where a global treaty on cutting emissions will be crafted.

“This is a way of expressing in very simple terms, understandable in any language, that 350 needs to be the goal for Copenhagen,” said May Boeve, the U.S. coordinator for 350.org. “There have been plenty of white papers and policy analysis but not enough sense of political will. That’s what’s really needed.”

In order to reverse the trend and bring carbon dioxide emissions under 350 ppm, we must “stop burning coal and other fossil fuel and . . . start rolling out clean energy and other sustainable development strategies around the world,” the 350.org site says.

So it’s no surprise that coal manufacturers are among the targets for 350.org demonstrations this weekend, including Chicago’s Fisk coal-fired plant, where Greenpeace supporters and others plan to rally.

Another group plans to gather at noon in Daley Plaza on their bicycles and ride through the city (arriving at the Fisk plant rally around 12:40), covering as much ground as possible to encourage people to ride their bikes — perhaps the most carbon-neutral mode of transportation.

To find out more about 350.org events in the Chicago area and elsewhere this weekend, go to 350.org/map.