People in 181 countries came together on 24th October 2009 at over 5,200 events around the world, gathering to call for action on the climate crisis.

‘In some sense, the global warming movement finally went global,’ said Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350​.org, the organisation behind the initiative. ‘It was ordinary people rallying around a scientific data point, to send the message that our leaders actually need to lead.’

The events all centred on the number 350, the amount in parts per million that scientists, climate experts and progressive national governments are saying is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide.

As the day unfolded, more than 22,000 photographs flooded into the 350​.org web servers, marking what they claimed to be ‘the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history.’

Highlights included planetary Scrabble’, compiling images of 3s, 5s and 0s from different locations. ‘The point was you had to put them together across global borders to solve the puzzle,’ said media co-ordinator Jamie Henn.

Demonstrators set up a pretend living room
on the beach, in Borth, Wales, which inevitably flooded!
Photo: © Veronique Meunier / 350​.org