The 2020 St. Louis Climate Leadership Campaign and St. Louis 350 Collaboration are committed to getting back from our current 387 parts per million of CO2 in our atmosphere to a stable 350 ppm.
Our primary method to accomplish this is to reduce CO2 and other climate emissions by 80% in the greater St. Louis region by 2020 through the establishment of replicable models of sustainable lifestyles and economies.
We are working closely with the other 2020 Climate Leadership Campaigns, 350.org and other local, national and international campaigns and initiatives that are engaged in fulfilling the goal of restoring and preserving civilization and the planet for the children and grandchildren of all species to the seventh generation and beyond.
Here is our vision for what our Cool St. Louis Climate Summit could accomplish:
Dateline St. Louis - October 10, 2010
Early this morning just before sunrise, a group of dignitaries, scientists and many ordinary people from across the region, around the country and many other parts of the world gathered for the final event of the Regional Climate Prosperity Summit.
It was a ceremony led by elders from many tribes and traditions who were there to thank Mother Earth and Father Sky for bringing us all together in this place in the Heartland once again for a great tribal council, not to wage war on others with words or weapons, but to bring peace and prosperity to all peoples and all creatures great and small and to begin the healing the Earth, our common home.
It was a solemn ceremony which included many leaders of all the major organized religions as well who all spoke hopefully about the future and acknowledged the preeminence of care for the Earth in all religious traditions.
The ceremony was opened by Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work that has resulted in the planting of billions of trees on her home content of Africa and around the world. Miss Maathai, who is a practicing Catholic, spoke of both her strong Christian faith and her belief in the power of nature to heal itself with us as her partners.
The ceremony was closed by Grandmother Caroline of the Hopi Nation who claim that they are the descendents of the Mississippians, who built Monk’s Mound and the rest of the Cahokia complex and many structures, hundreds and perhaps even thousands of years ago. She called the occasion the Great Returning.
When asked what she meant by that statement afterwards, all she would say is that in all native traditions life and death and all of creation are seen as a circle. So in modern terms, you can think of it as returning to our senses. “It’s really quite simple,” she said. “If we care for the Creation, the Creation will care for us.”
Dateline St. Louis - October 9, 2010
This evening was a dinner and silent auction fundraiser for the 2020 St. Louis Climate Leadership Campaign, sponsor of the Regional Climate Prosperity Summit. Earlier this afternoon the final plenary session ended with the reading of a summary statement that lays out the strategy and major milestones that if faithfully implemented participants say will not only result in the reduction of our region’s carbon footprint by a whopping 80% by the end of 2020 but will also result in a steady improvement over the next ten years in not just economic indicators but real quality of life indicators like health, well-being and a rising regional satisfaction index.
Dateline St. Louis - October 8, 2010
A broad array of representatives from caucuses dealing with everything from sustainable agriculture to women’s issues that have been meeting by teleconference over the last several months and many face to face meetings this week in St. Louis took turns reporting on their findings and recommendations. Each brief presentation was followed by a panel that, after brief introductions and questions from the audience, answered, recorded and summarized audience input so that it could become an official part of the record.
There were also reports and presentations from this summer's design charrettes and recommendations from the forming Regional Climate Rapid Response Team.
The highlight of the day, of course, was the keynote address given after lunch by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai. Congressman Clay was jointly introduced by Lewis Reed and Darlene Green, who then introduced Miss Maathai. As expected Miss Maathai started by acknowledging the leadership of Congressman Lacy Clay, Jr., President of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed and Comptroller Darlene Green. She called for stronger action by the rest of our national government but also expressed confidence that regional actions and those planned for other regions would go a long way towards meeting the challenge and perhaps at some point Washington, London, Berlin, Tokyo, Mumbai, Beijing and the others will get the message and get on board as well.
Dateline St. Louis - October 7, 2010
Today wrapped up a busy week for local climate leaders as well as those who have been visiting St. Louis this week in preparation for this weekend’s Regional Climate Prosperity Summit, leaders and enthusiasts from the sustainable cities and communities movements together for a Summit, which will culminate with the 10/10/10 Global Work Party. Many have stayed the whole week to participate in a series of discussions interspersed with ecologic theme site seeing.
While many were busy putting the final touches on reports, design teams refining their presentations and plans for the 10:10 Global Work Day events and art groups their plans for regional climate art happenings in November to coincide with the next COP, the big event of the day was the opening of the Climate Prosperity Summit Itself with an address by State of the World Forum President, Jim Garrison, on behalf of the 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign, sponsors of the Climate Properity Summit and all the work of the St.Louis 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign. Other climate luminaries expected to address the summit via satellite this weekend include Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute who will set the larger context in the morning, David Gershon of the Empowerment Institute who is here to lead a Cool Communities Café during the lunch hour to launch the Cool St. Louis Campaign, and David Martin of M-CAM, Inc., who has been working with the finance caucus and the City.
