UPDATE: We are looking for larger venues that will donate their space for FREE community events like this one. We hit capacity for this Ignite/LA due to unprecedented demand – please contact one of the organizers if you know of a centrally located space in Los Angeles. We would like to continue to provide this as a FREE community event! Thank you.

Ignite Global: What is Ignite?

Fast-paced, fun, thought-provoking, social, local, global—Ignite is all of these and more. It’s a high-energy evening of 5-minute talks by people who have an idea—and the guts to get onstage and share it with their hometown crowd. Run by local volunteers who are connected through the global Ignite network, Ignite is a force for raising the collective IQ and building connections in each city.  And, via streaming and archived videos of local talks, local Ignites share all that knowledge and passion with the world.

—-

PAST EVENT:

Ignite/LA

Monday, June 7, 2010 7:30pm ↔ COME EARLY!  When capacity reached it’s “one out / one in”
V Lounge, Santa Monica
Free http://ignitela.eventbrite.com/ — REGISTER SOON, space is limited! LINE-UP LIST ONLY avail now w/Eventbrite link.

5 Minutes.  20 Slides.  15 Seconds per Slide.

Los Angeles: Speakers get only 5 minutes to give an amazing, inspiring talk.  In LA, there are tons of different communities at the intersection of tech, art, green/sustainability, unique lifestyle design, digital/collaborative media, and social action that don’t know each other but should.  Think of Ignite as a set of trailers for exciting projects people are doing that you should know about.

Speakers on June 7:

** Directed Evolution // Frances Arnold, Caltech Prof: Wikipedia Entry

** Another Earth // Amir Give’on, NASA JPL

** Write How To Make The Best Of Living In A War Zone // Liz Grover, Writer/Filmmaker

** How to Stop Killer Robots from Destroying the Human Race // Brady Brim-DeForest, CEO Tubefilter

** Financing the Future // Glenn Yago, Exec Dir of Financial Research, Milken Institute

** An Amazing History of Awesome Stuff Underground // Molly Steenson, Design Researcher

** Asking a girl out with PPT // Jason Porath, Professional Effects Artist and Technical Director

** Mechanical Olympics // Xtine Burrough, Media Artist & Asst Prof CSU Fullerton

** Human Performance and Transformation // Dave Logan, Thought Leader, Author, Consultant, & Assoc Prof USC Marshall

** Seduction // Felice Dunas, Executive Coach, Author, and Vitality Expert

** Meditation and Consciousness // Pedram Shojai, Taoist & Qi Gong master, Wellness Expert

** Collaborative Production // Sheila Hardy, Filmmaker / Eve’s Lime

** Teaching Kids Programming // Lynn Langit, Microsoft Evangelist / Digigirls

** The Internet in China // Christine Lu, CEO, Affinity China

** Free Broadband // John Ayers , OpenNeighborhoods

**Bringing Your Story to Life in 3D Animation // M Eastling, Rex Ray Films

Previous Ignite/LA talks can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/iGNiTelosangeles#p/u including:
- The Making of the Ok Go Rube Goldberg machine
- Tech & Humanitarianism: Crisis Commons
- The Future of Money

also see http://igniteshow.com/ for many great Ignite presentations from around the world.

Details &  Schedule
———————

The event is FREE.  We’re hosting it at V Lounge on June 7:

-> 7:30pm Hang out, V lounge will have drink specials

-> 8:30pm-9:45 Ignite talks

-> Feel free to hang out afterwards

While the event is free, you are responsible for paying for your own food/drinks from V Lounge if you want ‘em.  There is a decent amount of street parking in the neighborhood if you’re early. V Lounge has valet; we haven’t finalized, but believe they may be able to get us a discounted rate.

V Lounge
2020 Wilshire Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90403-5608

Please register at http://ignitela.eventbrite.com/

Organizers and Sponsors
———————
This event was organized by Dan Gould (@dgould), Michael Liskin (@rhetor), Heathervescent (@heathervescent), and SocialAnimal.tv.

Co-sponsor Social Animal (http://socialanimal.tv) is managing production–and will put the talks on the YouTube.

Follow Us
———————
Twitter https://twitter.com/Ignite2LA

Ignite/LA Facebook group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=300099460918

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/IgniteLA

Thanks,
The Ignite/LA crew

Ignite Los Angeles is part of Global Ignite Week

Ignite Los Angeles during Global Ignite week happened on March 1st, 2010.

This Ignite/LA included the following speakers; We (the organizers) would like to thank them for their huge contribution to the community: Eric Gradman, Adam Sadowsky, Mike Flynn, Chad Catacchio, Chris Spurgeon, Kasey McMahon, Lisa Remington, Sekou Andrews, Dena Plotkin, Kurt Daradics, Karen North, and Jenny Funkmeyer

Thank you to @TechFrog and @curiousjosh for their photo contributions! And thank you to my fellow co-organizers and our sponsors and event staff.

Adam Sadowsky’s talk on the (Global Ignite Show) on how they made the Rube Goldberg machine for the OK GO video has already surpassed 42,000 views on YouTube by May 2010 and is a behind-the-scenes look at an Internet hit of a video!

Kurt Daradics was featured on the Los Angeles Ignite Show and our other speakers’ videos are up on the Los Angeles Ignite channel (click their name above) and may soon be featured on one of the shows.

Here is the original call to action:

————-

Ignite/LA

Monday, March 1, 2010
7pm; talks start at 7:30pm

5 Minutes. 20 Slides. 15 Seconds per Slide.

Speakers get only 5 minutes to give an amazing, inspiring talk. In LA, there are tons of different communities at the intersection of tech, academia, art, green/sustainability, entertainment, unique lifestyle design, digital/collaborative media, and social action that don’t know each other but should. Think of Ignite as a set of trailers for exciting projects people are doing that you should know about.

At other Ignites, talks have included:
- Cyborg Anthropology
- The Secret Underground World of Lego
- How to Buy a Car
- Hacking Chocolate

At the last Ignite/LA, we had talking including:
- The Future of Money
- Turning AI gurus into Comets and Star Field Explosions
- Bubble Nets among Humpback Whales

you can check out the recordings on http://ignite.oreilly.com/show/

Details & Schedule
———————

The event is FREE. We’re hosting it at Cinespace on March 1:

-> 7pm Dinner & Drinks — Cinespace has good food and plenty of drinks. Hang out with programmers, entrepreneurs, digital artists, researchers, etc

-> 7:30pm-8:45 Ignite talks

-> 9:30 Cinespace opens to the general public — you’re welcome to stay for the concert

While the event is free, you are responsible for paying for your own food/drinks from Cinespace if you want ‘em.

Cinespace
6356 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Organizers and Sponsors
———————
This event was organized by Dan Gould (@dgould), Michael Liskin (@rhetor), Heathervescent (@heathervescent), and Matt Forrest.

This event is co-sponsored by USC’s Annenberg Program on Online Communities (@APOCusc), http://www.AnnenbergOnlineCommunities.com. Co-sponsor Social Animal (http://socialanimal.tv) is managing production–and will put the talks on the YouTube.

Ignite was started by Brady Forrest at O’Reilly. This event is part of Global Ignite Week, March 1-5. As part of Global Ignite Week, there will be Ignite events on six continents in 60 Cities with 600 Talks, encompassing 10,000+ Igniters.

Talks
———————

If you’re working on an interesting project, have an unusual skill, or
just some interest that would be fun to share with everyone, please
submit a proposal to:

http://bit.ly/IgniteLA

We are trying to mix all sorts of topics, so tell us what you’re up to that’s interesting.

****REGISTER EARLY AND GET FREE VALET****
———————
http://ignitela.eventbrite.com/ (official RSVPs here please)

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/5401445/CA/Los-Angeles/Ignite-LA/Cinespace/ (tell your friends here please)

Follow Us
———————

Twitter hashtag: #igniteLA

Twitter username: @Ignite2LA

Ignite/LA Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=300099460918

Thanks,
Michael (@rhetor), Dan (@dgould), Heather (@heathervescent), and Matthew

Well that wraps up a meta-live-blogging blog post for another great year for Opportunity Green. Karen, Mike, and the rest of the crew did an amazing job with this conference that has made an impact for not just those in attendance but those around the world following the live blogs and twitter feed. The new products and techniques highlighted over the conference prove that sustainable + eco-friendly + saving our planet can be done in ways that provide tangible financial results. Sure Sloan/MIT told us that 70% of businesses haven’t found a business case yet for such direction– but that was framed as an opportunity, and rightly so. The imagination, entrepreneurship, and forward-thinking conversations were inspiring. We can change the way we do business in this country and in the world. We can also have an impact on our future. Take a look at the blogged content below-the-fold and you might walk away with an action-step or two. And make sure to follow Opp Green as they continue to create more opportunity for action.

There is plenty to be found via Google search, however the following represents many of those who live-blogged the conference. This post was originally a real-time growing list of live-blogging links and twitter info, meant for use during the conference itself.

follow @oppgreen for official updates and live tweets, also:

@rhetor (me), @EcoTuesday, @pinkyracr, @mcpolls, @ecochickie, @ecofabulous
@greenbusinesses,@organicmania,@sustainablemnds, @YourDailyThread,
@purelightled, @emgollie, @Soaptopia, @TheVectorGroup,@brandonthebuck,
@fayfeeney, @tinochow, @greennurture, @squorange, @envisiongood,
@triplepundit, @Diva_Divine, @ChivasSkinCare, @pdmaLA, @ReelGreenMedia

And for the full Twitter Live Feed of the hashtag #og09: http://bit.ly/og09search

(or you could use http://www.Monitter.com but it’s slow today)

For the Opportunity Green Tweeting archive: click this Twapperkeeper

Please check out the OppGreen Livebloggers of the conference (official):

excerpts:

Story of Stuff creator Annie Leonard and Jonah Sachs of Free Range Studios discuss the importance of storytelling when building your brand. Being authentic, speaking to the core truths and showing the connections were all themes they expounded upon.  Leonard and Sachs emphasized that you should not just throw around statistics because that shuts people down – particularly applicable when conveying environmental information.  Connecting the dots between statistics and the story behind the numbers is important because it is easy to get bogged down by the details and forget to emphasize how it applies to daily life and emotion. (Justine Suh)

Hopenhagen is: “The hope that in Copenhagen this December – during the United Nations Climate Change Conference – we can build a better future for our planet and a more sustainable way of life (Gaia Dempsey)

I think I speak for everyone in the Covell Center main ballroom when I say Chris Jordan’s photos of the remains of sea birds, killed by the plastic they unwittingly ate, were arresting. Saddening. Maddening. And hopefully, inspiring. (Ben Upham)

Unofficial Livebloggers:

http://yourdailythread.com/2009/11/07/a-photographic-journey-shines-a-light-on-the-pacific-plastic-problem-at-opportunity-green-2009/

http://www.greenwala.com/community/blogs/all/3167-Opportunity-Green-09-day-1?f=true

http://www.greenmaven.com/blog/opportunity-green-conference-this-weekend-in-los-angeles/

Tino Chow’s picture slideshow:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23015148@N02/sets/72157622754824674/show/

http://www.tinochow.com/blog/2009/11/hopenhagenorg/

http://www.core77.com/blog/events/opportunity_green_conference_first_impressions_15136.asp

http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/11/hopenhagen-the-ultimate-cause-marketing-campaign/

http://thegraffik.co.cc/opportunity-green-conference-first-impressions.htm

http://greennurture.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/day-ii-at-opportunity-green/

earlier:

http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/11/bamboo-utencils-kor-water/

http://greennurture.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/live-from-opportunity-green-at-ucla/

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/archives/2009/11/annie_leonards.html

http://heartofgreen.typepad.com/heart_of_green/2009/10/opportunity-green-2009.html

http://buildaroo.com/news/article/industry-leaders-launch-new-companies-and-products-at-opportunity-green-conference/

Twitter Hashtag is #og09

Huge thanks to Jake McKee of Ants Eye View for directing me to this video. This shows the media-communications-digital revolution in a succinct and dramatic manner, and it’s fun to watch. Scholars of communication, media, and technology studies will get something out of this so be sure to watch it if that describes you!

Below is the recording of the livestream of the event, covering what’s happening in LA that is eco-conscious and sustainable, what can be done locally to affect the world at large, how to reduce your carbon footprint, how to get involved and make a difference, what to do in the home or office, and green consumerism in LA and via the Internet.
Free TV Show from Ustream

Moira Nordholt's Tweetuplift December 2008

Since the inaugural voyage of The Schwaggin Wagon, I’ve been more aware of examples of people using the power of new media to quickly organize and mobilize individuals for brief acts of philanthropy–what I’ve called Flash Philanthropy. Now that the microblogging site, Twitter, has a larger user base, there is a greater potential for ad hoc acts of charitable mobilization that take less and less time to set in motion. Simply put: Twitter gets the word out fast when it’s time to create ad hoc groups based on a shared idea.

Back in the Spring of 2008, six of us organized the wagon project in less than 10 days, and it played out in 72 hours. A few days ago, vegan consultant and cookbook author Moira Nordholt organized her Tweetuplift in less than 48 hours and it played out in two! We used Twitter in the service of our project, whereas Moria used Twitter to organize her project in the first place. How did she gather ten people to give up their time on Christmas day (in order to hand out food and supplies to those in need)? How did she gather them in the pouring rain, with no mandate or preconceived structure, giving less than two days of lead time for anyone to alter their plans? Answer: Twitter–but not just Twitter. Specifically the fact that well-known and well-followed people chose to take up her cause and “re-tweet” her call on Twitter, meaning they re-broadcasted the call for volunteers for which Moira had originally asked. This allowed a wider audience of people to hear about the ad hoc event, and choose to take part.

Moira’s Twitter handle is @feelgoodguru. Among those who helped were @invisiblepeople, @vaguelyartistic, @AlexisNeely (who brought multiple family members and had been looking for such an opportunity when she saw the tweet), @JackiePeters, and @ronproulx. Re-tweets came from @rhetor (me), @lizstrauss, @perrybelcher, @scobleizer, @heathermilligan, @HarpArora, @Andrewjustin, @cfl_homeless, @nakisnakis, @linnetwoods, @Peppersantblai, @lovemorenow, @mrken777, @amoyal, @mandamin, @bcross, and @LAist. You can check out Moira’s recap of the event here. And the Laist post here. Bottom line: They handed out food and 100 scores of ponchos to some very cold and hungry individuals, and by doing so they made a difference in people’s lives.

Here’s the punchline regarding Twitter and this instance of flash philanthropy: Moira has only been a member of Twitter for less than a month, and she doesn’t have a vast network of friends in Los Angeles because she lives mostly in Toronto. She probably has less than 20 followers on Twitter who live in Los Angeles! She tells me:

“Twitter is a way of finding your tribe members and then taking it from there…when you tweet something you’re passionate about… it’s a great way of getting people to come out of the woodwork”

It sure is. Will we see future Tweetuplifts in all the major cities in the U.S.? I wouldn’t be surprised if we do. The “flash” in flash philanthropy can spark something far beyond the initial act, and I give a great deal of credit to the Moira Nordholts of the world. Keep flashing!

LinkedIn has expanded the capability of their social network by adding collaborative features in the form of nine applications, such as sharing power-point presentations and your blog with one’s colleagues. This is a fantastic expansion and will allow for a richer collaborative experience with business contacts and colleagues, but…

As users we will need tighter and more flexible privacy controls. LinkedIn cannot afford to follow Facebook’s path, which was to expand communicative and collaborative features before the necessary flexibility of privacy settings was in place. Since that time, Facebook has set industry standards with regard to detailed and useful privacy controls–they deserve credit for that.

As LinkedIn rolls out these new features, what will they do to expand controls for grouping one’s contacts, especially insofar as each contact can see one’s particular usage of an application? How will they create finer gradations of privacy within the applications?

For instance, do you want all your vacations and travels highlighted for all of your business contacts to see, or just some of them? More importantly, how easy will this be for the user? Many users have been mixing business with social contacts for some time now on Facebook and other OSNs, but have remained disciplined in their usage of LinkedIn. These new LinkedIn features, along with expanded LinkedIn Group capabilities, provide an opportunity to rethink that process.

It’s important that the controls keep pace with what will undoubtedly be rapid expansion of the sharing of personal information with one’s business contacts. While this collaboration can be wildly productive and transformative, we know it produces sharply unintended results. See Brian Solis’s discussion of Bono and Facebook as a reminder of the–perhaps unintended–power of the social web.

Jeremiah Owyang recently discussed LinkedIn’s bright future, especially the fact that they have secured significant funding, hence securing their ability to “go shopping” for collaborative technologies that can add features quickly to the service. Great! I agree with Owyang’s insightful conclusions; he expects LinkedIn to “offer more collaboration between colleagues and connections to happen outside of the firewall where IT doesn’t have control.” If LinkedIn learns from the past mistakes of online social networks, thereby providing detailed privacy controls as these new features are launched–not after–then we can spend more time basking in the creative potential of our newfound collaboration, and less time concerning ourselves with the unintended consequences of one-size-fits-all communication.

+++

[Here is the original LinkedIn blog post on their adding of Applications that feature Amazon (books), Box.net, Google, Huddle, Six Apart (blogs), SlideShare (multimedia), Tripit, and WordPress (blogs) "...as well a Company Buzz application developed by LinkedIn." This is an eventual game-changer for LinkedIn.]

It is not often that I tell people they “must read” something. Bill McKibben eloquently tells us in this article why it is necessary for us to act now to make sure our governments collaborate on climate change agreements in the next 3 years.

I will say this at the outset– I believe him. I believe the scientist Rajendra Pachauri who McKibben quotes as giving humanity a hard deadline of 2012 — if we do not begin actions to lower emissions before that date, we will set off irrecoverable chain reactions in the environment.

The goal is to roll back our CO2 emissions from 385 to 350ppm (parts per million).

A few of us have just launched a new campaign, 350.org. Its only goal is to spread this number around the world in the next 18 months, via art and music and ruckuses of all kinds, in the hope that it will push those post-Kyoto negotiations in the direction of reality.

If ever there were a time for me to proclaim “this is the paradigmatic example of why social and collaborative media are crucial,” now would be it. If you’ve ever asked, “what’s the point of Web 2.0?”, here is the moment to jump on and get involved. Those of us who are using social and collaborative media on the web more than others owe it to humanity to pass this along in whatever form we think will make the most difference. If you blog, please consider writing about 350.org. If you use a social network, consider posting the URL; if you use Flickr then consider joining the Flickr group. McKibben is not an expert on Internet collaboration and new media, but he certainly gets its potential for results:

We do have one thing going for us: This new tool, the Web which, at least, allows you to imagine something like a grassroots global effort. If the Internet was built for anything, it was built for sharing this number, for making people understand that “350″ stands for a kind of safety, a kind of possibility, a kind of future.

And with that, I will reproduce the article in its entirety after the jump. It’s that important.

The World at 350
A Last Chance for Civilization
By Bill McKibben

Even for Americans, constitutionally convinced that there will always be a second act, and a third, and a do-over after that, and, if necessary, a little public repentance and forgiveness and a Brand New Start — even for us, the world looks a little Terminal right now.

It’s not just the economy. We’ve gone through swoons before. It’s that gas at $4 a gallon means we’re running out, at least of the cheap stuff that built our sprawling society. It’s that when we try to turn corn into gas, it sends the price of a loaf of bread shooting upwards and starts food riots on three continents. It’s that everything is so inextricably tied together. It’s that, all of a sudden, those grim Club of Rome types who, way back in the 1970s, went on and on about the “limits to growth” suddenly seem… how best to put it, right.

All of a sudden it isn’t morning in America, it’s dusk on planet Earth.

There’s a number — a new number — that makes this point most powerfully. It may now be the most important number on Earth: 350. As in parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

A few weeks ago, our foremost climatologist, NASA’s Jim Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with several co-authors. The abstract attached to it argued — and I have never read stronger language in a scientific paper — “if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.” Hansen cites six irreversible tipping points — massive sea level rise and huge changes in rainfall patterns, among them — that we’ll pass if we don’t get back down to 350 soon; and the first of them, judging by last summer’s insane melt of Arctic ice, may already be behind us.

So it’s a tough diagnosis. It’s like the doctor telling you that your cholesterol is way too high and, if you don’t bring it down right away, you’re going to have a stroke. So you take the pill, you swear off the cheese, and, if you’re lucky, you get back into the safety zone before the coronary. It’s like watching the tachometer edge into the red zone and knowing that you need to take your foot off the gas before you hear that clunk up front.

In this case, though, it’s worse than that because we’re not taking the pill and we are stomping on the gas — hard. Instead of slowing down, we’re pouring on the coal, quite literally. Two weeks ago came the news that atmospheric carbon dioxide had jumped 2.4 parts per million last year — two decades ago, it was going up barely half that fast.

And suddenly, the news arrives that the amount of methane, another potent greenhouse gas, accumulating in the atmosphere, has unexpectedly begun to soar as well. Apparently, we’ve managed to warm the far north enough to start melting huge patches of permafrost and massive quantities of methane trapped beneath it have begun to bubble forth.

And don’t forget: China is building more power plants; India is pioneering the $2,500 car, and Americans are converting to TVs the size of windshields which suck juice ever faster.

Here’s the thing. Hansen didn’t just say that, if we didn’t act, there was trouble coming; or, if we didn’t yet know what was best for us, we’d certainly be better off below 350 ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. His phrase was: “…if we wish to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed.” A planet with billions of people living near those oh-so-floodable coastlines. A planet with ever more vulnerable forests. (A beetle, encouraged by warmer temperatures, has already managed to kill 10 times more trees than in any previous infestation across the northern reaches of Canada this year. This means far more carbon heading for the atmosphere and apparently dooms Canada’s efforts to comply with the Kyoto Protocol, already in doubt because of its decision to start producing oil for the U.S. from Alberta’s tar sands.)

We’re the ones who kicked the warming off; now, the planet is starting to take over the job. Melt all that Arctic ice, for instance, and suddenly the nice white shield that reflected 80% of incoming solar radiation back into space has turned to blue water that absorbs 80% of the sun’s heat. Such feedbacks are beyond history, though not in the sense that Francis Fukuyama had in mind.

And we have, at best, a few years to short-circuit them — to reverse course. Here’s the Indian scientist and economist Rajendra Pachauri, who accepted the Nobel Prize on behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year (and, by the way, got his job when the Bush administration, at the behest of Exxon Mobil, forced out his predecessor): “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.”

In the next two or three years, the nations of the world are supposed to be negotiating a successor treaty to the Kyoto Accord. When December 2009 rolls around, heads of state are supposed to converge on Copenhagen to sign a treaty — a treaty that would go into effect at the last plausible moment to heed the most basic and crucial of limits on atmospheric CO2.

If we did everything right, says Hansen, we could see carbon emissions start to fall fairly rapidly and the oceans begin to pull some of that CO2 out of the atmosphere. Before the century was out we might even be on track back to 350. We might stop just short of some of those tipping points, like the Road Runner screeching to a halt at the very edge of the cliff.

More likely, though, we’re the Coyote — because “doing everything right” means that political systems around the world would have to take enormous and painful steps right away. It means no more new coal-fired power plants anywhere, and plans to quickly close the ones already in operation. (Coal-fired power plants operating the way they’re supposed to are, in global warming terms, as dangerous as nuclear plants melting down.) It means making car factories turn out efficient hybrids next year, just the way we made them turn out tanks in six months at the start of World War II. It means making trains an absolute priority and planes a taboo.

It means making every decision wisely because we have so little time and so little money, at least relative to the task at hand. And hardest of all, it means the rich countries of the world sharing resources and technology freely with the poorest ones, so that they can develop dignified lives without burning their cheap coal.

That’s possible — we launched a Marshall Plan once, and we could do it again, this time in relation to carbon. But in a month when the President has, once more, urged us to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, that seems unlikely. In a month when the alluring phrase “gas tax holiday” has danced into our vocabulary, it’s hard to see (though it was encouraging to see that Clinton’s gambit didn’t sway many voters). And if it’s hard to imagine sacrifice here, imagine China, where people produce a quarter as much carbon apiece as we do.

Still, as long as it’s not impossible, we’ve got a duty to try. In fact, it’s about the most obvious duty humans have ever faced.

A few of us have just launched a new campaign, 350.org. Its only goal is to spread this number around the world in the next 18 months, via art and music and ruckuses of all kinds, in the hope that it will push those post-Kyoto negotiations in the direction of reality.

After all, those talks are our last chance; you just can’t do this one light bulb at a time. And if this 350.org campaign is a Hail Mary pass, well, sometimes those passes get caught.

We do have one thing going for us: This new tool, the Web which, at least, allows you to imagine something like a grassroots global effort. If the Internet was built for anything, it was built for sharing this number, for making people understand that “350″ stands for a kind of safety, a kind of possibility, a kind of future.

Hansen’s words were well-chosen: “a planet similar to that on which civilization developed.” People will doubtless survive on a non-350 planet, but those who do will be so preoccupied, coping with the endless unintended consequences of an overheated planet that civilization may not.

Civilization is what grows up in the margins of leisure and security provided by a workable relationship with the natural world. That margin won’t exist, at least not for long, this side of 350. That’s the limit we face.

Bill McKibben is a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College and co-founder of 350.org. His most recent book is The Bill McKibben Reader.