It's the final day of the UN Climate Talks in Bangkok and the buzz here isn't about the progress being made on a global treaty (not much), but about Power Shift.
Well, ok, to be honest, most delegates probably don't know about the conference coming up in DC next weekend, but if all goes well, they will soon. After all, when it comes to saving the planet, the discussions and work that goes on in DC at Power Shift will be just as essential as the debates raging here at the UN.
Amongst civil society representatives, however, there is a building level of excitement about Power Shift and the growing climate movement.
Over the past three years, we have seen the explosion of the global climate movement. At Power Shift 2009, the organization I work with, 350.org, was little more than a small group of former students from Middlebury College and writer Bill McKibben. We spent the conference signing up students to take part in a global day of action on October 24 and Bill took the stage with a dancing 3, 5, and 0 to spread the most important number on earth: 350, as in 350 ppm, the safe level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere that we're already past.
