It's pretty easy to convince folks in inner Portland to fight climate change. With thousands of pedestrian, bike commuters and transit riders taking the low-carbon route to work, environmental responsibility isn't necessarily a tough sell.
But it is a nuanced pitch.
That's why this year's Moving Planet event, scheduled for Sept. 24, is about more than just making low-impact transportation choices.
"It's about what policies affect our transportation behavior," said Rex Burkholder, a Metro councilor who sponsored a resolution designating Sept. 24 as a Global Day of Climate Action. "You can't blame someone who lives in a place that doesn't have good transit, where things are far apart, if they're forced to use their car."
The event coincides with 350 Day, designated to highlight what some climate scientists say is the safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – 350 parts per million. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the level recorded at an observatory in Hawaii is 390 parts per million, up from less than 320 ppm in 1960.
The goal of the organization is to get that number back below 350 ppm.
"It's an ambitious goal," said Jessica Atwater, a Metro policy assistant who helped coordinate the agency's involvement in the event. "We've got to aim high to get there."
Not everyone is convinced such action is necessary. Kathleen Worman asked the Metro Council on Thursday to oppose a resolution supporting 350 Day and the Moving Planet event.
"This is unproven science, and 350.org has no scientific background to what they're doing," she said. "It's just a way to spend public money and make public policy based on unproven science."
Gordon Fulks, an academic advisor for the Cascade Policy Institute with a doctorate of physics, said humans have little impact on the earth's climate.
"Man's effects are small, if not completely insignificant," Fulks told the Metro Council at Thursday's meeting.
Burkholder pointed out that the 350 ppm number came from James Hansen, the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
"The National Academy of Sciences, in its report, says the science is settled," Burkholder said. "It's a very appropriate task for this government to take on."
The Moving Planet event is scheduled from 11:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept.24 at the Memorial Coliseum Commons. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., is scheduled to speak at the event at noon.