America's waistline isn't the only thing increasing these days. Currently, the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is 384 parts per million (ppm) and rising. NASA's leading climatologist James Hansen says that "to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted," CO2 must be reduced to 350 ppm.
As a leading contributor of harmful emissions, the United States has a responsibility to act, but legislation in the U.S. Senate is completely inadequate to meet the target of 350 ppm. Without legislation to enforce this limit, there'll be drastic consequences: rising sea levels, disappearing wildlife habitats, severe weather patterns and new public health challenges.
In response, the Leadership Campaign, a movement of hundreds of students in Massachusetts, with help from community and clergy members, is taking action to get the state legislature to pass a bill committing to 100 percent clean electricity by 2020. This would give Sen. John Kerry a bargaining chip when he represents the United States at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark on Dec.7. This conference may be a last opportunity for an international agreement on climate change action, but it'll be hard convincing other nations to reduce their carbon footprints if we've done nothing ourselves.
To get this legislation passed, this Saturday night, Oct. 24, the International Day of Climate Action, we're sleeping outside in tents on the academic quad to show that we reject the use of dirty electricity. We'll sleep outside every night until legislation is passed, or until December's conference. This Sunday night, we'll try to gain legislators' attention by sleeping on the Boston Commons with students from Boston-area colleges.
Massachusetts has a long history of leading the nation — think back to the American Revolution — so here we are again, ready to lead, because it's our responsibility, because we want to sustain life as we know it, and because we love and respect our planet.
The Leadership Campaign wants more students to join us, so consider sleeping outside this Saturday. We're ready to lose these extra parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere. Here we come, 350!
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Chelsea Hogan is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. She is a Tufts media coordinator for the Leadership Campaign.
